Research

Hormonal

Obesity causes hypertension through multiple mechanisms including sympathetic nervous system activation, renin-angiotensin system (RAS) overexpression in adipose tissue, and renal sodium retention.

If you have obesity, your risk for high blood pressure is significantly increased due to biological mechanisms involving your nervous system and hormones. Managing your weight through diet and exercise can help mitigate these risks.

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Activation of the sympathetic nervous system (SNS), the amount of intra-abdominal and intra-vascular fat, sodium retention leading to increase in renal reabsorption, and the renin-angiotensin system, are considered to have important functions in the pathogenesis of obesity-related hypertension
Shu-Zhong Jiang et al. · Experimental and Therapeutic Medicine · 2016

Why this rating

The paper is a review citing multiple observational and experimental studies, but lacks a single definitive clinical trial.

Source

Obesity and hypertension

Shu-Zhong Jiang et al. · Experimental and Therapeutic Medicine · 2016

DOI 10.3892/etm.2016.3667

narrative_reviewCited 450×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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