Tackling obesity may help ease dangerous irregular heartbeat

Losing weight for obese people with atrial fibrillation may help restore healthy heart rhythm.

Obese patients with atrial fibrillation who lost at least 10 percent of their body weight were six times more likely to achieve long-term freedom from this common heart rhythm disorder compared to those who did not lose weight.

The study was the first to track the long-term effects of weight loss and the degree of weight fluctuation on atrial fibrillation burden. Patients who lost more weight and maintained a more stable weight over four years showed marked reductions in atrial fibrillation burden and severity, the study's primary endpoints.

Weight loss was also associated with significant beneficial structural changes in the heart and significantly improved other markers of heart health including blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar levels.

In an analysis that took all of these factors into account, patients who lost at least 10 percent of their weight were six times more likely to achieve freedom from atrial fibrillation than patients who lost less than 3 percent of their weight or gained weight.