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Orlistat Lowers Blood Pressure In Obese People With Inadequately Controlled Hypertension

Orlistat lowers blood pressure and reduces cardiovascular risk in obese people with inadequately controlled hypertension more effectively than does diet alone.

This is the result of a year-long prospective, randomized, double-blind, placebo multicenter trial undertaken by researchers from Rush University Hypertension/Clinical Research Center, Chicago, and other American centres including Roche Laboratories, New Jersey, United States.

All patients were given a 600 kcal deficient diet that provided 30 percent or less of the calories from fat. The patients were also randomized to receive orlistat or placebo.

The patients taking orlistat showed greater weight loss than those on diet alone: reductions of 5.4 and 2.7 kg respectively. Body mass also declined by a greater amount among those in the orlistat group compared to diet alone: reductions of 1.9 and 0.9 kg /m² respectively. Furthermore, 46 percent of those taking orlistat and 23 percent of those in the placebo arm lost at least 5 percent of their body weight.

Diastolic blood pressure declined to a greater extent among those taking orlistat than in the placebo group: 11.4 and 9.2 mmHg respectively. Moreover, 67 percent of the orlistat arm reached their target diastolic blood pressure (90 mmHg or a decline of at least 10 mmHg) compared to 53 percent of the diet alone group.

Those treated with orlistat also showed greater reductions in levels of total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol. Overall, 36.1 percent of the orlistat users showed a reduction of at least 30 percent in their cardiovascular risk compared to 24.0 percent of the diet alone group.

The authors concluded that a weight-loss programme that incorporates orlistat lowers blood pressure and reduces cardiovascular risk more effectively than diet alone.
J Hypertens 2002; 20:2257-2267. "Orlistat improves blood pressure control in obese subjects with treated but inadequately controlled hypertension."

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