Journal of American Coll of Cardiology Studies show WLS can Reverse Heart Disease

The Journal of the American College of Cardiology published a 2 year study that documents the significant improvement 400 gastric bypass patients saw in their cardiac health. This study used EKGs which showed 'remodeling' of the heart where the patients heart mass literally became smaller. They believe that this happens because the patient's hearts were not having to work as hard as they had before the weight loss which allowed their hearts to functions normally, instead of under extreme stress. While there has long been strong evidence citing the benefits of gastric bypass surgery on diabetes, hypertension, cholesterol and sleep apnea, this study indicates, that it also improves the health and function heart muscle itself.

If you would like to see the article, you can click this link. 

Thanks Barbara.  I appreciate your staying on top of the technical stuff.  Abating heart disease is one of the reasons I had my surgery.

Thanks Cheryl... It's one of the many reasons I did it as well. I found this study to be very comforting.

These results are hopeful.

Coming from a family with 95% of my maternal family having had a stroke, heart attack, and/or some type of heart failureor problem, I sought the surgery to reduce my risks of being next.

The hard part of my medical history is having been 400+ pounds, my doctors were always amazed at my health. They often told me I was the healthiest overweight patient they have ever seen. I never had or experinced some of our common comorbidities, and my doctors never reccommended I lose weight. I had a very false perception of my health.

My family's medical history opened my eyes. Too bad I do not have a previous heart scan to indicate if is smaller in mass, but I do have a better quality of life and have hopefully added some years to my living.

Take care!
 

Hi Valerie,

What I really took away from this study was that if we had indeed compromised the size, strength and efficacy of our cardiac function and therefore our cardiac health, that the significant weight loss and improvement in blood glucose, cholesterol and pressure all seem to work to positively impact our cardiac health. Also, the actual physical strain of having to carry the excess weight seemed to be a factor in our having larger, less effective hearts before we lose the weight. I guess I'm saying that the likelyhood is that even if you were not showing signs of cardiac distress, you are likely to be in much better cardiac health now than you were before your surgery and the weight loss. The other thing that I took away from this study is that while the control group that also lost weight, but without the surgery also showed improvements in their cardiac health, that the improvement was limited to the time that they were able to keep off the excess weight and that the patients that had gastric bypass fared much better in maintaining their new healthier weight.

Sooooo... to cut to the chase, congratulations on doing something wonderful for your cardiac health!