Over the next three years, the Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute plans to study the effects of weight loss in cardiac patients. (CBC)

A team of Alberta heart researchers will try to find why overweight people appear to survive longer after heart failure than thin people.

The three-year $250,000 study by the Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute also hopes to determine whether structural changes to the heart that occur during heart failure can be reversed through voluntary weight loss.

Dr. Arya Sharma, Obesity Research Chair at the University of Alberta, said the study is aimed at broadening the existing body of research that shows links between obesity and heart failure, and to come up with better treatment methods.

"Being overweight and obese puts a lot of strain on your heart, not just because it increases your risk for high blood pressure, diabetes and other risk factors for heart disease, but because being overweight and carrying around all that extra weight it can actually put a mechanical strain on your heart that can ultimately lead to heart failure," said Sharma.

"So the aim of the study is to take patients who have severe heart failure and are severly obese and get them to lose weight in order to see if we can actually improve their heart function."

Trish Filevich, a spokesperson for the institute, said the question of why overweight people appear to better survive heart failure is a unique area of study. "It needs to be studied further," she said.

Twenty patients with stable heart failure, who weigh more than about 250 pounds, will be recruited to participate in the study. They will be put through exercise and weight loss programs and monitored.

The funding also will help etablish a network of researchers in a wide range of fields from population health, nutrition, and physical activity to molecular genetics, cell biology, neuro-pharmacology, physiology – many of whom are part of the Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute.

The University Hospital Foundation, through a major capital campaign, raised over $47 million from donations across the country to provide support for the Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute.