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Weight Loss Surgery can be a Life Saver

Just how effective is weight loss surgery in improving health? Two studies published last year in the New England Journal of show that weight loss surgery weight loss produces as much as a 40% reduction in deaths in the 10 years after the operation. As a growing number of Americans become obese the demand for bariatric surgery has risen. Obesity has several co-morbidities, including: diabetes, high blood pressure, sleep apnea, heart disease, and infertility.

The first study by the University of Utah examined gastric bypass surgery according to data collected on nearly 16,000 severely obese people, half of which had undergone the surgery between 1984 and 2002. The results of the study found surgery patients were 40% less likely to die from any cause during the 7 year follow period. Additionally, patients were 92% less likely to die from diabetes, 59% less likely to die from coronary artery disease, and 60% less likely to die from cancer.

The second study by Gothenburg University in Sweden, observed 4,000 obese volunteers with half undergoing a type of bariatric surgery and the other half undergoing conventional obesity treatment. Ten years following the treatment, the bariatric surgery group had lost more weight and had a 24% reduced risk of death compared to the conventional treatment group.

Over 175,000 patients underwent bariatric surgery last year and the number is expected to grow this year. The problem of Obesity in America doesn%u2019t seem to be declining, and as weight loss procedures become less invasive, it seems likely that it will become an increasingly common procedure.

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