Study Suggests Gastric Bypass May Help Less Severely Obese

Posted by Patient Help Desk on May 4, 2008 under Bariatric Research News | Be the First to Comment

Are you familiar with your Body Mass Index (BMI) score? You may want to learn yours, especially if you’re struggling with excessive weight. You see, this number can help to determine whether you’re at risk for cardiovascular problems!

To calculate your BMI score, you need to figure out the ratio of your weight to your height, squared.

Typically, a “healthy” BMI score is one between 18.5 and 24.9. Countless clinical studies have shown that the higher the BMI score, the greater your likelihood of developing a wide array of harmful conditions. Among these are: diabetes, arthritis, low-back pain, skin and psychological disorders, menstrual disturbances, and various cardiovascular problems.

How Effective Are BMI Scores for Those Considering Weight Loss Surgery?

But before you panic, it’s important to consider that BMI scores are NOT fool-proof. They can fail to accurately recognize body fat among athletes and more muscular people, while also miscalculating decreased muscle mass, such as that of the elderly.

The overweight and the obese may be misrepresented by BMI scores, as well. Traditionally, medical experts believed that the overweight and obese could ward off cardiovascular risks by undergoing bariatric surgery.

These procedures were performed on men and women with BMI scores of 40 or higher, or those at least 100 pounds overweight, considered “morbidly obese.”

The problem is, many patients are considered overweight, but NOT obese; these men and women generally have BMI scores between 35 and 40. These individuals can be afflicted with dangerous conditions, including heart disease or dependent diabetes. As such, these patients are good candidates for weight loss procedures. Amazingly, research has shown that the overweight may find the surgeries more beneficial than the morbidly obese!

A ground-breaking University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center study focused on this proposed connection between bariatric surgery guidelines and how they related to BMI scores and cardiovascular disease. The researchers found that several subjects displayed significant heart disease risk factors, as well as BMI scores lower than 40.

Valuable Benefits for “Obese” Patients

What does this mean? Well, those patients considered “obese” but not “morbidly obese” would definitely improve their cardiovascular health by undergoing bariatric surgery. This is because certain moderately overweight individuals don’t store fat in their cells as efficiently as the morbidly obese. Therefore, their cardiovascular systems are not as susceptible to potential damage.

Surprisingly, even those men and women with BMI scores as low as 30 can as poor cardiovascular health as those with much higher scores. “Our results show that cardiovascular risk factors do not necessarily worsen with increasing obesity,” says Dr. Edward Livingston, chairman of GI/endocrine surgery at UT Southwestern and the study’s lead author. “They also support the concept that obesity, by itself, doesn’t trigger an adverse cardiovascular risk profile or increased risk of death.”