Weight Loss Surgery Cuts Heart Disease By Half

Weight Loss Surgery Cuts Heart Disease By Half

July 5, 2006 11:15 a.m. EST
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7004121683

Patricia Shehan - All Headline News Staff Writer
San Francisco, CA (AHN) - According to the results of a new study
presented at the Twenty-third Annual Meeting of the American Society
for Bariatric Surgery held between June 26 and July 1, weight loss
surgery results in cutting heart disease risk nearly in half for the
extremely obese individual.

The study also indicated that extremely obese people were not as likely
to require heart surgery for blocked arteries as compared with
individuals who did not undergo the weight loss surgery.

According to researcher Nicolas V. Christou, M.D., Ph.D., from McGill
University Health Center in Montreal, "No other treatment has been
shown to have this much impact on preventing or reducing heart disease
in patients with morbid obesity."

The study showed that patients who had undergone weight loss surgery
had an overall loss of sixty-seven percent of excess body weight.

Researchers of the large study support the idea that the beneficial
results of lowering heart disease outweigh the risks of obesity. Of
course, weight loss surgery must be assessed on an individual basis of
risks versus benefits.

According to the American Society for Bariatric Surgery, approximately
170,000 Americans underwent gastric bypass surgery in 2005, the most
common form of weight loss surgery.

The Society estimates that another 15 million individuals, which
equates to approximately two percent of the nation's population, are
currently considered morbidly obese. The definition of morbid obesity
is having a body mass index of 40 or greater. Body mass index is a
ratio that factors an individual's weight in relationship to their
height.

Morbid obesity not only causes a much higher risk of heart disease
problems, but it is also associated with the development of several
health risks, which include high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes.

According to Eric DeMaria, M.D., Director of Bariatric Surgery at the
Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, "Our findings
show that for the low-risk group of patients, gastric bypass surgery is
a very safe option. For those patients in the highest risk category, we
should look at performing lower-risk or a number of smaller procedures
to reduce the potential risk."

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