Weight-Loss Surgery Adds Years to Life
Those who also make lifestyle changes reap most benefit
 (HealthDay News) -- Large-scale research studies have proven what many people suspected: Weight-loss surgery can reduce the risk of early death for an obese person by up to 40 percent.
The surgeries essentially reduce the size of the stomach, using either a bypass technique (gastric bypass) or an adjustable band (lap-band surgery) to squeeze off the gastric pouch. More than 120,000 weight-loss surgeries are being performed each year in the United States .
Medical experts believed that the massive weight loss that results from these procedures was helping people live longer, but there was no hard evidence of that until the publication of two studies by American and Swedish researchers.
The seven-year U.S. study, involving almost 16,000 obese people, found that the death rate was 40 percent lower for those who had gastric bypass than it was for those who didn't have the surgery.
"Diabetes mortality was improved by 92 percent, coronary artery disease by 56 percent, and cancer by 60 percent," lead researcher Ted Adams, an adjunct associate professor in the Division of Cardiovascular Genetics at the University of Utah School of Medicine, told HealthDay .
The surgery itself appeared to carry little short-term risk, but there were some longer-term risks associated with the rapid weight loss, including a slight increase in the odds of injury-related death and an increase in psychological illness.
"There are some studies showing that a number of folks, after bariatric surgery, go on to develop certain chemical dependencies," Adams said, adding that people should have an in-depth consultation with a doctor to make sure that weight-loss surgery is right for them.
The Swedish study followed more than 4,000 obese people for an average of 11 years, finding that those who had gastric bypass or lap-band surgeries had a 29 percent lower death rate than those who didn't have the procedures.
The studies were published in the New England Journal of Medicine .
These findings come "as no surprise at all -- it's one of the reasons that I have been doing these procedures for so long, because I've seen the real benefit that this has had for people," Dr. George Fielding, a pioneering bariatric surgeon in New York City, told HealthDay .
Weight-loss surgery "virtually eliminates your risk of getting diabetes if you haven't already got it -- and if you are morbidly obese, eventually you will get diabetes," said Fielding, an associate professor of surgery at the New York University School of Medicine.
The full benefits of weight-loss surgery are realized when people follow up with lifestyle changes such as exercise and healthy eating.
"Bariatric surgery is a tool, and the patients who are most successful -- who are able to keep their weight off for the long term and keep their health problems at bay -- are those who marry that tool with lifestyle change," Dr. Anita Courcoulas, an associate professor of surgery at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, told HealthDay .
On the Web
To learn more about bariatric surgery, visit the Weight-control Information Network.
SOURCES:
HealthDay News ; Ted Adams, Ph.D., M.P.H., adjunct associate professor, Division of Cardiovascular Genetics, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City; George Fielding, M.D., associate professor of surgery, New York University School of Medicine, New York City; Anita Courcoulas, M.D., M.P.H., associate professor of surgery and chief, Section of Minimally Invasive Bariatric and General Surgery, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine; Aug. 23, 2007, New England Journal of Medicine
Author:
Robert Preidt
Publication Date:
July 31, 2008
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