Weight-loss surgery MASSIVELY reduces risk of life-threatening diseases

Weight loss surgery can help prevent a number of dangerous ailments

 

WEIGHT-LOSS surgery could prevent thousands of cases of life-threatening health conditions in the UK including type 2 diabetes and heart attacks, according to a new study.

 

Scientists compared rates of obesity-associated illnesses in 3,882 weight-loss surgery patients and patients who had not undergone the procedures, which include bypassing the stomach or reducing its size.

They found that over a period of three and a half years, bariatric - or weight-loss - surgery significantly improved existing type 2 diabetes and lowered abnormally high blood pressure.

The findings, published in the journal PLOS Medicine, suggest that widening the availability of these procedures could improve the health of thousands of obese people in the UK.

The researchers estimate that if the 1.4 million people believed to be morbidly obese in the UK 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.

It could also improve the lives of the 110,000 people already suffering with type 2 diabetes and the 13,000 people who have already been diagnosed with hypertension.

 

Surgery such as gastric bands can reduce the risk of heart attack

 

Just 5,558 bariatric procedures were carried out in the UK in 2013, compared with 37,300 in France, where the prevalence of obesity is lower than the UK.

The study also confirmed that the surgery, which is available on the NHS in extreme circumstances, leads to substantial weight loss that is sustained for at least four years.

Estimated average four-year weight loss was 38 kilos (six stone) for gastric bypass, 31 kilos (five stone) for sleeve gastrectomy, and 20 kilos (three stone) for gastric band.

 

Obesity is one of the causes behind type one and type two diabetes

 

People having weight-loss surgery were 70 per cent less likely to have a heart attack

Dr Ian Douglas

 

Lead author Dr Ian Douglas, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: "Obesity is one of the biggest health problems of our generation.

"Rates of cardiovascular disease, although slowly declining, are still alarmingly high while type 2 diabetes is on the rise, affecting 3.5 million people in Britain. Finding effective ways to tackle the obesity crisis is therefore a key public health strategy.

"Whilst effective prevention is clearly needed, our findings show that as well as helping patients substantially lose weight, bariatric surgery improves serious obesity-related illnesses as well as reducing the risk of developing them.

"People having weight-loss surgery were 70 per cent less likely to have a heart attack, and those with type 2 diabetes were nine times more likely to see major improvements in their diabetes.

"We also found positive effects on angina and the debilitating condition obstructive sleep apnoea."

 

Christmas can see us piling on the pounds

 

Study co-author Professor Rachel Batterham, Head of the UCL Centre for Obesity Research, said: "Bariatric surgery is safe and produces unrivalled health benefits that are life-changing for patients and cost-saving for the NHS.

"Unfortunately, less than one per cent of the patients who could benefit from this surgery currently receive surgery. This represents a major missed opportunity in terms of improving health and economic savings.

"Action is now needed to remedy this situation."