A study which followed 400 gastric bypass patients, found that the average BMI at the 2 year point, was 32, still obese. The study was conducted at the Medical College of Georgia.
That the patients had mostly not lost all their weight was predictable but the study's lead researcher, Dr. Sheldon Litwin, chief of cardiology, reported that the patients had a reduced risk of heart disease.
Explaining that the size and mass of the patients' hearts had greatly decreased, Litwin stated this suggested that their hearts were not working as hard to pump blood and therefore, less "stressed" than before surgery. Dr Litwin also said that the hearts of the patients were more normal size.
The problems with this theory are many - first, the heart is a muscle and working it is not a bad thing which is why many overweight people have strong hearts. Second, what caused the reduction of heart tissue? Was it less stress due to a lower weight (which remember, was for most patients, still in the "obese" range) - or was it that in the first year or so, gastric bypass patients take in very little food (300-500 calories day, thus causing a very rapid weight loss) and what their bodies can no longer get from food, is leeched from their bodies. Protein and iron, both poorly digested in gastricbypass patients especially in the post surgery stage, can be obtained from the heart tissue and this would much more likely explain the loss of heart mass however, loss in this manner would not be a good thing. On the contrary. It is this type of tissue loss which is suspected to be a factor in the heart attacks observed in 25% of anorexics.
I have known several gastric bypass patients to come down with heart disease after surgery (some require a pacemaker for example).
I notice in the article they quote Dr Lee Kaplan saying that only 1 percent of those qualified for weight loss surgery get it. But I'm wondering if that quote was taken out of context because in the Self Magazine article, Dr Kaplan said:
*** "Because it's risky, it's only appropriate for a tiny fraction of people with obesity—the sickest 1 to 2 percent. The idea that all obese people should get [WLS] surgery is insane."
Lee Kaplan, M.D., director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Weight Center in Boston in "Self MAGAZINE: 'The Miracle Weight Loss that isn't' AUG 2008 ***
The article points out that the risk numbers, cholesterol and blood pressure are down on the gastric bypass patients. These numbers also go down in people with terminal cancer. However, I doubt that cancer patients are at lower risk of coronary disease.
Finally, they emphasized the diabetes "cure" (really a remission not a cure) which has been observed in 72% of patients at the 2 year point, however, what they don't mention is that the studies have found that by the ten year post op point, most cases of diabetes have returned.
Whatever the case, it seems like the media is using this study to sell the surgery than anything else (as someone on one of my listserves pointed out).
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