A new study has discovered that overweight patients are more likely to survive treatment for heart attacks than normal weight patients.
Research conducted by German and Swiss scientists has concluded that initial treatment of obese or very obese patients are less than half as likely to die during the following three years compared to those patients with a healthy body mass index.
Dr Heinz Buettner, head of interventional cardiology at Herz-Zentrum, Germany and colleagues studied a total of 1,676 patients who had been diagnosed with unstable angina/non-ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (heart attack) between 1996 and 1999.
"Although there is no doubt that people who are overweight, obese and very obese have a higher risk of developing diabetes, hypertension and coronary artery disease, the evidence from our study shows once a coronary event has occurred and been optimally treated, obese patients switch to a more favourable prognosis compared to normal weight patients," said Dr Buettner.
However, he added that it was advisable for overweight people to consider looking at their diet now rather than waiting for a heart attack to encourage them to make improvements to their lifestyle and seek
obesity treatment.
© Adfero Ltd
Heart surgery news : 22/06/2007
