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June 21st, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda WEDNESDAY, June 20 (HealthDay News) — Seven years after they
underwent weight-loss surgery, patients as a whole fared better on several
measurements of their risk of cardiac problems, a new study finds, and
many returned to normal levels.
The findings don’t prove that weight-loss surgery reduces the risk of
events such as heart attack and stroke, although other research has
suggested it does. And weight-loss surgery, which includes procedures such
as gastric bypass, comes with major risks of its own and is only
recommended for some severely obese patients.
Still, the findings suggested the procedure provided plenty of cardiac
benefit to the patients, said study co-author Dr. John Morton, director of
bariatric surgery and surgical quality at Stanford University School of
Medicine. “For most of them, they came back to normal,” he said. “There
were roughly about a dozen measurements altogether, and there were
substantial improvements across the board.”
Weight-loss surgery, also known as bariatric surgery, aims to help
severely obese people lose weight by shrinking the amount of food that
their digestive systems can handle. The cost of the procedures ranges from
$20,000 to $25,000, according to the Weight-Control Information Network of
the U.S. National Institutes of Health.
A Swedish study published in January in the Journal of the American
Medical Association suggested that the procedure reduces the risk of
death from heart attack. Obese people who had the procedure were less
likely than similar people to die from a cardiovascular problem (such as a
heart attack) or suffer a first-time heart attack or stroke.
The new study looked at several measurements that indicate whether a
person is at higher risk of cardiac problems, including levels of “bad”
LDL and “good” HDL cholesterol, triglycerides and a specific protein.
The researchers tracked 182 patients — mostly women, average age 44
years — and managed to keep tabs on 78 of them for seven years. After
seven years, the average patient weight fell from 286 pounds to 205
pounds. Their average cholesterol reading dipped from 184 to 174, LDL
cholesterol dropped from 113 to 92, and triglycerides fell from 151 to
87.
On average, patients had big drops in a measurement of high-sensitivity
C-reactive protein, the investigators found. People with high levels of
this protein are at greater risk of heart attack and stroke.
The research is important because it tracks the effects of weight-loss
surgery over several years, said Dr. Robin Blackstone, president of the
American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery. The procedures may
help patients reduce risk through weight loss and an accompanying change
in the body’s metabolism and the related workings of the heart, she said.
Lona Sandon, an assistant professor of clinical nutrition at the
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, cautioned that
weight-loss surgery has pros and cons.
While it can help people lose weight fairly quickly, “which is
important for people who are at high risk, such as those with heart
disease and uncontrolled diabetes,” the surgeries can cause complications,
such as infections, she said. “Also, it can lead to malnutrition, as the
amount of food someone can eat is very restricted and because part of the
intestine is bypassed, meaning some nutrients cannot be absorbed.”
The study is scheduled to be presented Wednesday at the annual meeting
of the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery, in San Diego.
The data and conclusions should be viewed as preliminary until published
in a peer-reviewed journal.
More information
For more about weight-loss surgery, try the U.S. National Library of
Medicine.
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