Weight-loss surgery can cut risk of heart failure

WEIGHT-loss surgery may reduce the risk of heart failure for patients with obesity by improving blood flow through the heart muscle.

- Hanna Geissler

Scans were taken from 27 patients before and after bariatric surgery, and blood flow through the smallest blood vessels in their hearts was measured.

Six months after surgery, patients had lost an average of four and a half stone. Thirteen out of 17 who had type 2 diabetes before treatment had managed to put it into remission.

The scans revealed that blood flow patients' hearts had through increased.

Levels of triglycerides (fat found in the blood) had dropped and levels of "good" HDL cholesterol had risen.