Daily HealthBeat Tip

Ease off the weight, ease off the pressure.

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I'm Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

Keeping the weight off � or losing it, if you need to � may be a good way to head off high blood pressure. Researchers found this when they looked at people in a long-running study in Framingham, Massachusetts. The study in Archives of Internal Medicine was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Lynn Moore of the Boston University School of Medicine:

"Those who lost weight had a lower risk of developing high blood pressure during their lifetime than did overweight people whose weight was stable." (eight seconds)

Middle-aged people who lost 15 pounds or more reduced their risk of developing high blood pressure over the next four years by 21 percent. Older adults had a 29 percent reduction. And even if people gained back some weight, they still kept much of the benefit of their original weight loss.

Learn more at www.hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I'm Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: September 20, 2005

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