She knows firsthand the effect weight has on blood pressure

My first child insisted on entering the world butt first, so I had a C-section. As my obstetrician, partner, and best friend stood ready, scalpel in hand, to make the incision that would introduce Cassie to the bright lights of Deaconess Hospital, I wondered to myself, “Will this epidural really work?”

No matter that I had done hundreds of C-sections using epidural anesthesia. This was me we were talking about. Rest assured, it worked great.

I thought of this when I got the results of some blood work recently. We doctors have been telling our patients for years, “Lose 10 percent of your body weight, your blood pressure will improve, your cholesterol will go down, and many of your risk factors for future heart disease and stroke will diminish.” But this is me we’re talking about.

I had always had decent, if not stellar, blood lipid levels and a low blood pressure, but menopause was not kind to me. Suddenly I was on two blood pressure pills and my lipid levels were completely screwy. So my doctor started me on a statin drug. The blood pressure returned to normal and the lab work improved markedly.

Then one day I lined up all the pills I was taking and decided to heed my own advice. I went on Weight Watchers and lost 30 pounds. Along the way, I shed one of the blood pressure pills (the next may go soon) and about two months before the lab work was done, I stopped taking the statin drug. I didn’t mean to, really. Doctors can be just as flighty about their medications as anyone else. I just kept forgetting to get it refilled.

So now, just like when I had the C-section, I’m a believer. No cholesterol-lowering drugs for two months. My cholesterol went from 271 (bad) to 179 (good). The bad cholesterol dropped almost by half and the good cholesterol rose. My blood pressure is reassuringly low again.

It’s really true. If you lose weight, your blood pressure gets better and your lipid levels improve dramatically. But how? We don’t know for sure, but we have some pretty good ideas,

Central obesity, lovingly referred to as “middle-aged spread” or “beer belly,” is strongly associated with abnormal blood lipid levels and high blood pressure. You can tell if you are an “apple” or a “pear” by measuring your waist to hip ratio (WHR). A WHR greater than 1.0 in men or 0.8 in women means you are an apple with a greater risk for type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and cardiovascular death from heart disease and stroke. As the obesity epidemic spreads, we are rapidly becoming a nation of apples.

Fortunately, when we lose weight, it’s the central fat that goes first. And with it goes the abnormal cholesterol levels, because of some complicated biochemical mechanisms that neither you nor I necessarily want to understand. But I do understand the effect that weight has on blood pressure. In response to that weight, signals get to the kidneys, telling them to retain more sodium (salt), which leads to water retention, which contributes to high blood pressure. All this corrects itself with even mild weight loss.

The take home message here is that weight loss is first and foremost about health, not looks. You don’t need to look like a model, in fact I heartily recommend against it. So I say, quit supporting the pharmaceutical industry, and get thee to a good weight loss program!

Too hot to cook?

Try this simple, fat free, watermelon soup:

4 cups seeded watermelon, chunks and juice

2 tablespoons lemon juice

2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint

2 tablespoons honey

2-inch piece fresh ginger root, peeled and coarsely chopped

Nonfat plain or vanilla yogurt for garnish

Place all the ingredients except the yogurt in a food processor and whirl away. Chill at least one hour. Garnish with yogurt as desired.