Peer Reviewed
Feature Article Endocrinology and metabolism
The cardiac complications of obesity
Recent articles on:
Obesity
Obesity
Recent articles on:
Heart diseases
Heart diseases
Abstract
Obesity is a powerful risk factor for cardiovascular events, but accumulating data suggest that patients can remodel their hearts and improve health outcomes by losing weight.
Key Points
- The majority of the Australian population is overweight or obese.
- The impact of obesity on cardiovascular (CV) risk is multifactorial and self-amplifying.
- Morbidly obese patients with coronary syndromes are prone to increased procedural complications and poorer outcomes than patients of normal weight.
- Doctors are strongly advised to inform their patients who are obese of their elevated CV risk profile and mortality.
- Data increasingly suggest that patients can remodel their hearts and health outcomes by losing weight.
- Accumulating evidence from prospective trials has shown that various forms of bariatric surgery may have positive impacts on CV endpoints.
Picture credit: © Lightspring/Shutterstock.
Purchase the PDF version of this article
Already a subscriber? Login here.