In a study published in PLOS Medicine, bariatric surgery can reduce the risk of developing serious health conditions such as heart attacks and type 2 diabetes, as well as improve existing conditions.
The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine led the research in partnership with UCL and the UCLH Bariatric Center for Weight Management and Metabolic Surgery. Researchers compared weight, BMI and obesity-related illnesses between 3,882 bariatric surgery patients and similar control patients who did not have surgery over an average period of three-and-a-half years.
Here are five key findings:
1. Researchers found that weight-loss surgery can significantly improve existing type 2 diabetes and reduce abnormally high blood pressure.
2. They also estimate that if the 1.4 million people believed to be morbidly obese in the United Kingdom had bariatric surgery, it could prevent 80,000 cases of hypertension, 40,000 cases of type 2 diabetes and 5,000 heart attacks over a four-year period.
3. Additionally, 110,000 people with type 2 diabetes and 13,000 people with hypertension could significantly improve their condition.
4. The study also confirmed that the procedures stimulate dramatic and substantial weight loss which is sustained for at least four years, and suggested that gastric bypass and sleeve gastrectomy promote the most weight loss out of the different types of surgery.
5. Ian Douglas, MD, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, was the lead author of the study.