Managing Cardiometabolic Risk
Managing Cardiometabolic Risk in Abdominally Obese Patients
Nutrition
- 1Key Points (1 page)
- 2Managing abdominally obese patients at increased cardiometabolic risk: the nutritional perspective (1 page)
- 3Targeting excess body weight (1 page)
- 4CVD and its nutritional components (2 pages)
- 5Reducing blood pressure (1 page)
- 6Moderate alcohol consumption (1 page)
- 7The Mediterranean diet (1 page)
- 8Other dietary measures to lower CVD risk and cholesterol levels (2 pages)
- 9References (1 page)
Managing abdominally obese patients at increased cardiometabolic risk: the nutritional perspective
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Obesity is a fast-growing epidemic caused mainly by environmental influences and poor lifestyle choices. It is now accepted that obesity—abdominal obesity in particular—increases the prevalence of a cluster of metabolic abnormalities known as cardiometabolic risk factors/markers (1). Contributing to obesity’s rise is the fact that more and more people have sedentary lifestyles, eat refined diets, and consume energy-dense food of poor nutritional value. This “permissive” environment leads to a positive energy balance, weight gain, and obesity-related complications. Various therapies—including diet, physical exercise, and pharmacological treatments—can help reduce the incidence of obesity and its metabolic abnormalities. Since many patients with hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular disease (CVD), or the metabolic syndrome are overweight/obese and have high-risk waistlines (2-4), weight loss should be the first-line therapy prescribed by health care professionals (5, 6). However, even though diet and diet/exercise combinations can help individuals lose weight, studies have consistently shown that when the diet/exercise prescription is stopped, any weight lost is regained progressively and long-term success is jeopardized if patients are not given sufficient support.
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