Heart Disease and Weight Loss Surgery

Patients who are morbidly obese often have a combination of risk factors for heart disease. Currently, heart disease is one of the leading causes of death secondary to morbid obesity.

Risk factors for heart disease include:

• Male gender
• Age
• Smoking
• Diabetes
• High LDL cholesterol
• High blood pressure
• Obesity
• High stress job

When these risk factors are further combined, they are grouped together under the diagnosis of metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome is a combination of:

• High blood pressure
• Abnormal glucose tolerance or abnormal insulin resistance
• Abdominal obesity
• Abnormal cholesterol levels

Metabolic syndrome is a significant risk factor for premature death and heart disease. Weight loss surgery has a profound impact in regards to overall risk reduction secondary to heart disease and metabolic syndrome.

Multiple publications in the Journal of the American Medical Association have reported on patients followed for as long as 10 years after weight loss surgery. They continue to report a statistically significant decrease in heart disease risk and cardiac mortality following weight loss surgery compared to individuals who had just medical management alone.

As a result, it is an obvious conclusion that weight loss surgery will improve heart disease risk and the risks associated with metabolic syndrome.