Welcome to the Younger Longer 14-Day Blood Pressure Challenge. My name is Dr. Warrick Bishop. I'm a preventative cardiologist and I'm super excited that you're looking to look after your blood pressure. It is one of the most important and really one of the simplest things you can look after to look after your heart for the rest of your life.
During this 14-Day Challenge I'm going to share with you a whole lot of stuff. Every day, a video, some resources, a challenge or a task for you to complete and a fun fact. Stay tuned, your blood pressure is super important. Let me explain to you how, what you're going to do about it and how you're going to look after yourself for the years ahead
Why Listen?
- Get practical tips and science-backed advice you can apply immediately.
- Learn from real-world examples and medical expertise.
- Gain daily challenges to help you stay engaged and track progress.
- Take charge of your heart health in a simple, effective, and engaging way.
Transcript
G'day and welcome to Day 12 of the challenge. We're nearly finished!
Today we're talking about a very important component of blood pressure control — and that's weight and waist circumference.
Now, if you're a little bit overweight and find this topic a bit edgy, please know I’m not having a go. But it is super important. If you're slim and have no extra weight or waist circumference concerns, you can simply listen and learn. Either way, this is a topic that matters for everyone.
I spend a fair bit of time with my patients — particularly middle-aged blokes who tend to carry weight around the middle — discussing this crucial issue, especially when their blood pressure is starting to creep up.
That’s because every kilogram of body weight does add to your blood pressure. More importantly, extra weight is often associated with visceral fat — the fat that surrounds your organs. This isn’t the healthy kind of fat. Visceral fat is metabolically active, causes inflammation, disrupts hormones, and is known to significantly impact blood pressure.
The really encouraging news? You don’t have to lose massive amounts of weight to see a real improvement in blood pressure.
There’s a great rule of thumb: for every one kilogram of weight lost, you can expect approximately one millimeter of systolic blood pressure reduction. So, if you're carrying an extra five to ten kilograms, losing that weight could lower your systolic blood pressure by five to ten millimeters. That’s equivalent to the effect of many prescription medications!
Now, if you combine weight loss with good sleep, regular exercise, and managing your stress, then you’re really hitting home runs — not just for your blood pressure, but for your overall cardiovascular risk, stroke risk, and your quality of life.
As the weight comes off, your waist circumference will also tighten — and that tells us that visceral fat is reducing too.
So, what's the key message here?
Every kilogram matters. Every centimetre around the waist matters. Carrying too much fat isn’t just bad for blood pressure — it’s simply not good for you, full stop.
See if you can find ways to make a difference. The good news is, if you're feeling stuck, there are now effective medications that can make a meaningful impact in the long term.
Tomorrow, I'm going to be talking about how we can assess the risk of high blood pressure acting as a silent killer — before it causes any harm.
So, tune in for that. Until tomorrow, I hope you live as well as possible, for as long as possible.
Take care and bye for now.
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