The influence of the overweight and obesity on the degree of hypertension

Abstract

: In Ukraine, as well as throughout the world, arterial hypertension remains one of the most important problems. This is due to the fact that hypertension is a major risk factor of coronary heart disease and cerebrovascular disease, which is determined at 88.1% death rate from diseases blood circulation system, characterized by the high prevalence. In our time it is generally accepted that the level of increase in the frequency of obesity among the population in developed countries is of the alarming rate, so this phenomenon is compared with the epidemic (WHO, 2000; Haffner S. et al., 2003; Eckel RH et al., 2005). The clinical significance of this fact consists in that overweight and obesity are potential factors of the risk for hypertension. Epidemiological studies have established a significant correlation between body mass index (BMI), waist circumference and blood pressure (Brown CD et al., 2000; Wilsgaard T. et al., 2000; Poirier P. et al., 2005) . The probability of developing hypertension in patients with overweight are 50% higher than in patients with normal body weight (Vasan RS et al., 2001).