Cardiovascular disease (CVD), especially ischemic heart disease and stroke, is the major cause of death worldwide, accounting for more than one-third of all deaths annually. Hypertension is the most prevalent… Click to show full abstract
Cardiovascular disease (CVD), especially ischemic heart disease and stroke, is the major cause of death worldwide, accounting for more than one-third of all deaths annually. Hypertension is the most prevalent and modifiable risk factor of CVD-related deaths. The same is true for obesity, which is currently being recognized as a major global epidemic. The prevalence of obesity in the United States has increased dramatically, from 13.4% in 1960 to 36.5% in 2014, with as much as 70.7% of the American adult population being overweight or obese (CDC). Epidemiological studies have shown that obesity predisposes to hypertension and CVD - with the relationship between markers of obesity and blood pressure being almost linear across different populations. In this review, we discuss systemic and pulmonary hypertension in the context of obesity.
               
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