Weight-Loss Surgeries Extend Lives

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"However, the problem is for people who have more than 80 pounds to lose, diets are not going to work in the long term," said Courcoulas. "Most of these patients do diet for years and years -- as is often now required by insurance."

But without hard evidence that bariatric surgery boosts health and extends life, experts say it has often been a struggle to convincing health insurers to cover the procedure.

That might now change, the experts added.

In the Swedish trial, researchers at Gothenburg University and elsewhere tracked almost 6,100 very obese adults (BMIs over 34) for an average of 11 years. About two-thirds of the participants had undergone some form of weight-loss surgery, while others had tried non-surgical methods.

Death rates fell by 29 percent in the group that got surgery vs. those who hadn't, the team said. Most of the deaths were linked to heart disease.

Results were even more dramatic in the multi-center American study, which followed 16,000 adults with BMIs of 33 or above for seven years. The American team estimated that 136 lives were saved for every 10,000 surgeries performed. And the statistics were fairly impressive: Death from any cause fell 40 percent for those who underwent gastric bypass surgery versus those who did not. And death rates from specific diseases fell even lower.

"Diabetes mortality was improved by 92 percent, coronary artery disease by 56 percent, and cancer by 60 percent," said lead researcher Ted Adams, an adjunct associate professor in the division of cardiovascular genetics at the University of Utah School of Medicine in Salt Lake City.

The surgery itself appeared to carry little short-term risk. The death rate in the year after surgery (0.53 percent) was nearly identical to that of people who did not get gastric bypass, the researchers said.

Still, there were some longer-term risks associated with the rapid weight loss, including a slight hike in the odds of death by injury, and an increase in psychological illnesses. "There are some studies showing that a number of folks after bariatric surgery go on to develop certain chemical dependencies," Adams noted.