Countless research studies have demonstrated that obesity is associated with increased cardiovascular events (such as heart attacks) and death. Now, a large study has just provided evidence that weight loss surgery can provide increased protection against cardiovascular events.
A new study of more than 4000 obese individuals showed that receiving weight loss surgery was associated with a reduced long-term occurrence of cardiovascular deaths, as well as fewer heart attacks and strokes. The study was published in the January 4 issue of JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association).
The data is from The Swedish Obese Subjects (SOS) study, an ongoing, nonrandomized and controlled study conducted at 25 public surgical departments and 480 primary health care centers in Sweden. Researchers looked at patients enrolled from 1987 through 2001. Of the 4000 patients, approximately half were treated with bariatric surgery and the other half was treated through standard non-surgical care, which included advice on making healthy lifestyle changes. The findings were interesting; the data indicated that patients who had surgery were 30 percent less likely to suffer from a stroke or heart attack than patients in the control group, and half as likely to die from such an event.
However, the findings did not demonstrate a statistically significant relationship between weight change and cardiovascular events in either of the groups, meaning the amount of weight loss itself did not show a role in the protection against cardiovascular events. The study authors said this could be because of a lack of statistical power to show this relationship, or because there’s something about bariatric surgery itself which has an affect. They concluded that these results joined with the previously discovered associations between weight loss surgery and favorable outcomes regarding long-term changes of body weight, cardiovascular risk factors, quality of life, diabetes, cancer, and mortality show that there are many benefits to bariatric surgery. Further, some of these benefits are independent of the degree of the surgically induced weight loss.”
Deciding to have weight loss surgery is a big decision that should be carefully analyzed. You can learn more about the Gastric Band Institute’s surgical weight loss program on our website orview our upcoming educational seminars.