Gastric Bypass and LAP-BAND Surgeries Benefit Heart - Weight Loss Procedures Reduce Heart Disease Attacks - Possibly Diabetes as Well
July 1st 2006
Researchers say that the new weight loss surgery cuts the risk of heart disease in half in extremely obese patients. These patients are also less likely to require bypass surgery to unclog blocked arteries, compared to those that did not have the surgery.
Extremely obese means having a body mass index (BMI) of 40 or higher. BMI is calculated by dividing a person's weight (in kilograms) by his or her height (in meters, squared). The extremely (or morbidly) obese individual is also more likely to suffer from type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure than their normal weight counterparts.
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Nicolas V. Christou MD, PhD said “No other treatment has been shown to have this much impact on preventing or reducing heart disease in patients with morbid obesity.” Nicolas is a doctor at the McGill University Health Center in Montreal.
The research was released this week at the annual meeting of the American Society for Bariatric Surgery in San Francisco. They compared heart risk and related complications between 1986 and 2002 among a group of 1,035 morbidly obese patients who had weight loss surgery with more than 5,700 who did not have the surgery.
The results showed that the weight loss surgery patients were 5 times less likely to experience an irregular heartbeat that may lead to cardiac arrest or death. They also had a reduced risk of other heart-related problems, such as fluid in the lungs, which can lead to respiratory failure by more than half. They required less than half the number of heart surgeries, such as coronary bypass procedures and angioplasty. They also experienced half the rate of severe heart pain (i.e. angina) caused by inadequate blood flow to the heart.