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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- The first long-term studies of obesity treatments show that they lead to lasting weight and dramatically improve survival.
Researchers in Sweden and Utah separately found that obese people who underwent gastric surgery had a 30 percent to 40 percent lower risk of dying seven to ten years later compared with those who did not have such operations.
The research is being published today in the New England Journal of Medicine. Doctors say it should put to rest uncertainties about the benefits and risks of weight-loss surgery and may cause governments and insurers to rethink who should qualify for the procedure.
In Utah, researchers found severely obese patients who got a gastric bypass surgery were 40 percent less likely to die than those who did not get the surgery.
But it's not all good news. Those same people were 58 percent more likely than their non-surgery counterparts to die from other causes, including accidents and suicide.
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Information from: The Salt Lake Tribune
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
