Study Shows Weight Loss Surgery May Reduce Risk of Heart Disease
A recent study shows that weight loss surgery can reduce the risk of heart disease for people with type 2 diabetes. Here’s what you need to know.
Your body is a complex machine, and obesity can impact it in similarly complex, interconnected ways. For example, pressure on your lungs and diaphragm caused by excess weight can lead to shortness of breath, which can manifest as sleep apnea if left unaddressed. Fortunately, numerous studies have shown that bariatric surgery is effective at helping obese individuals lose weight and eliminate risk factors like shortness of breath and high blood pressure that can escalate into more serious health complications.
Recently, researchers at the Cleveland Clinic decided to take a closer look at how bariatric surgery can reduce your risk of developing heart disease if you’re obese and have type 2 diabetes. Here’s what they found.
Weight Loss Surgery May Reduce Risk of Heart Disease
To measure bariatric surgery’s impact on cardiovascular outcomes — which include heart attack, heart failure, atrial fibrillation, and kidney disease — researchers at the Cleveland Clinic conducted a study on patients with obesity and type 2 diabetes. Over the course of eight years, they observed and compared cardiovascular outcomes for 2,287 adults who underwent weight loss surgery and 11,435 adults who had the same conditions but did not have surgery.
The study’s results showed the positive impact of bariatric surgery on patients’ health. Weight loss surgery participants experienced a 40 percent reduction in cardiovascular outcomes as compared to the other group, further demonstrating that bariatric surgery is instrumental in diabetes remission and reducing the risk of heart disease.
Where Does Metabolism Fit In?
But why is bariatric surgery more effective at reducing your risk of heart disease than diet and exercise alone? It has to do with metabolism, or how your body converts food into usable energy. Your body is hardwired to hold on to the calories you consume, which is why you might find that the numbers on the scale don’t move much even if you’ve been making healthier lifestyle changes for a while. A fast metabolism makes weight loss easier, while a slow one makes it more challenging.
Weight loss surgery helps boost your metabolism in a few major ways. First, surgery helps you lose weight by reducing the size of your stomach so you can feel fuller after eating less. Second, surgery helps you absorb nutrients more effectively from the foods you eat, which places your body in a better position to kickstart your metabolism. And third, shedding excess pounds makes it easier and less painful to maintain an active lifestyle. Exercise is key to keeping the weight off after surgery, building lean muscles, and revving up your metabolism so you can burn more calories at rest.
In short, you need to re-engineer your base physiology to lose weight, reverse diabetes, and reduce cardiovascular outcomes. Luckily, bariatric surgery can do just that.
Additional Benefits of Weight Loss Surgery
There are other benefits to bariatric surgery besides reducing your risk of heart disease. Losing weight increases your mobility, makes you look younger, and even helps reduce medical costs associated with obesity. Weight loss surgery can also improve your mental and emotional health — nothing boosts your confidence like getting healthy and achieving the body of your dreams.
For more information about weight loss surgery and how it can reduce your risk of developing serious health complications, contact the bariatric surgery experts at Long Island Laparoscopic Doctors. Your journey to the new you starts with improving your health from the inside out — get in touch today to find out how weight loss surgery can help.