A new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, followed 4,000 obese Swedish people who’ve undergone bariatric surgery. Between 1987 and 2001, the study found decreased number of cardiovascular deaths and lower incidence of cardiovascular events in obese adults.
This study isn’t alarming as there have been numerous reports highlighting the various health and psychological benefits of extreme weight loss. Currently type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, hypertension and other disease, are said to be greatly minimized after bariatric surgery.
Decreased Cardiovascular Issues
The study found that obese people who decided not to undergo the weight loss surgery were found to suffer more cardiovascular issues including death. In Sweden 2,000 individuals who underwent the surgery and 2,000 individuals who opted against it, were followed.
This 14.7 year (average) study found that 199 who underwent bariatric surgery had their fisrt heart attack or stroke, with 28 deaths. The group who did not opt for the surgery, 234 people had their first heart attack or stroke, with 49 deaths.
When the researchers took into account the initial health differences between people who did and did not get surgery, they found that after the surgery, patients were about 30 percent less likely to have a first-time heart attack or stroke than non-surgery patients, and half as likely to die from one.
Although the study is promising, it doesn’t prove that that undergoing weight loss surgery will be beneficial to your cardiovascular health. That being said, it is pretty much confirmed by many bariatric surgeons and physicians that weight loss surgery does, without uncertainty, increase one’s lifespan.
We didn’t have access to see the study, but it would have been interesting to see what kind of exercise and dieting both groups did for the study. If there was an exercise component, a required component by almost all professionals today, did that have the biggest impact on this study’s findings?
Photo: Heart by jkavo, on Flickr
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