Surgical weight loss cuts diabetes risk by over 80pc

Thu, 20 Sep 2012
Bariatric surgery can slash the long-term risk of type 2 diabetes by more than 80 per cent for people with obesity, according to a Swedish study published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).

The research, conducted by Prof Lars Sj-str-m, Prof Lena Carlsson and their team at Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, found that bariatric surgery is significantly more effective than traditional care and lifestyle alterations in preventing type 2 diabetes among obese individuals.

The team followed 1,658 people who had undergone bariatric surgery and 1,771 equally obese people who had received traditional care over a period of 15 years. None of the participants had diabetes at the start of the study.

Over the 15 years, a total of 392 people in the traditional care group developed type 2 diabetes, compared to just 110 in the surgery group, indicating that bariatric surgery can lead to a more than-80 per cent reduction in diabetes risk among people with obesity.

"This is an extremely high figure," Professor Sj-str-m said. "Both women and men benefited in terms of diabetes, but the degree of obesity at baseline did not affect the results," he added.

The Sahlgrenska Academy research was based on the larger 'Swedish Obese Subjects (SOS)' study, which has demonstrated that surgical weight loss is also highly effective in preventing/treating cancer and cardiovascular disease, and improving health-related quality of life.
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