(LifeWire) - The hundreds of thousands of Americans who undergo weight-loss surgery each year certainly hope the procedure improves their quality of life. But they also reap at least one other benefit: better cardiac health.
Typically reserved for the morbidly obese with a body mass index (BMI, http://weightloss.about.com/od/obesityhealth/a/blwhatsbmi.htm) of 40 or more, bariatric surgery helps patients lose weight by altering the stomach and/or intestines to limit food intake and absorption. About 15 million Americans are classified as being morbidly obese; some 205,000 underwent the procedure in 2007, up from only 16,000 in the early 1990s.
Heart disease is America's number 1 cause of death. More than 650,000 people die of it each year. More than 80 million US citizens are affected by some form of cardiac disease, and 860,000 experience heart attacks annually.
Frequent questions about the surgery and its effects on cardiac health include:
What cardiac problems face the obese?
Obesity is one of the largest preventable risk factors for heart disease. It contributes to multiple hazards -- high blood pressure, high cholesterol, obstructive sleep apnea (in which a person stops breathing many times during sleep), irregular heartbeat (arrhythmia), heart failure, structural and functional changes in the size and shape of the heart muscle, and even sudden death.
What have scientists learned about the link between weight-loss surgery and heart health?
It has not been confirmed that bariatric surgery prevents cardiovascular events such as heart attack or stroke, but researchers have proven that it lowers overall risks. In a 2007 New England Journal of Medicine study, scientists found that long-term mortality from heart disease dropped 56% among gastric bypass surgery patients within 7 years of the procedure. Deaths from diabetes, a major heart disease risk factor, dropped 92%; deaths from any cause decreased by 40%.
How does bariatric surgery help achieve this?
Weight loss lessens the strain on the heart, quickly decreasing blood pressure, lessening the seriousness of one's case of diabetes and lowering the odds of congestive heart failure, which occurs when the heart cannot adequately distribute levels of oxygen-rich blood throughout the body.
Biochemical markers for cardiac problems also decrease significantly after surgery, including cholesterol levels and C-reactive protein (CRP), a substance that measures body-wide inflammation levels and serves as an indicator for heart disease. A 2007 study in Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases showed that CRP dropped nearly 90% in postsurgical bariatric patients.
Read more here about assessing your risk for heart disease.
Sources:
Adams, Ted D., Richard E. Gress, Sherman C. Smith, Chad Halverson, Steven C. Simper, Wayne D. Rosamond, Michael J. LaMonte, Antoinette M. Stroup, and Steven C. Hunt. "Long-Term Mortality After Gastric Bypass Surgery." New England Journal of Medicine 357(2007) 753-761. 26 Oct. 2008 <http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/357/8/753>.
"Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery." asbs.org. 2007. American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery. 26 Oct. 2008 <http://www.asbs.org/Newsite07/media/fact_sheet1_bariatric-surgery.pdf>.
"National Center for Health Statistics: Heart Disease." cdc.gov. 8 Aug. 2008. Centers for Disease Control. 30 Aug. 2008 <http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/heart.htm>.
Russo, Vincenzo, Ernesto Ammendola, Ilaria De Crescenzo, Danilo Ricciardi, Pasquale Capuano, Assunta Topatino, Ludovico Docimo, Lucio Santangelo, and Raffaele Calabro. "Effect of Weight Loss Following Bariatric Surgery on Myocardial Dispersion of Repolarization in Morbidly Obese Patients." Obesity Surgery 17:7(2007) 857-865. 26 Oct. 2008 <http://www.springerlink.com/content/qn710144368886m8/>.
Williams, D. Brandon, Judith C. Hagedorn, Elise H. Lawson, Joseph A. Galanko, Bassem Y. Safadi, Myriam J. Curet, and John M. Morton. "Gastric Bypass Reduces Biochemical Cardiac Risk Factors." Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases 3:1(2007) 8-13. 26 Oct. 2008 <http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B7>.
