Weight Loss Improves Heart Health

Weight Loss Improves Heart Health
By Reed Miller

Boston, MA - Weight loss by morbidly obese patients may promote improvements in left ventricular structure independent of the other benefits of weight reduction, results of a controlled trial show. In the study, patients with morbid obesity who lost weight after a medical weight loss program had improved measures of left ventricular structure, independent of changes in blood pressure and other obesity-related comorbidities, including obstructive sleep apnea. Both the postsurgery patients, as well as control patients who lost weight without treatment, showed improvements in right ventricular end-diastolic area and right ventricular systolic pressure. The study is published in the February 16, 2010 issue of the American Journal of Cardiology. According to the authors, Dr Carolina Garza and colleagues, it is the first controlled study with long-term follow-up to evaluate the connection between weight loss and left ventricular function in morbidly obese patients independent of improvements in blood pressure, obstructive sleep apnea, and other obesity-related comorbidities. The same group published a similar study in 2008 showing that changes in body weight are associated with change in left atrial size independent of comorbidities and that weight loss caused by bariatric surgery prevents the progressive increase in left atrial volume. The author point out that controlling for obstructive sleep apnea is especially important in light of recent evidence that that sleep apnea is associated with impairment of both right and left ventricular function. In conclusion, medical weight loss is the answer quickest solution to long term Heart Health.