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Posted on Jul 10, 2006, 9 a.m.
By Bill Freeman
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
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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