Gastric bypass surgery offers major benefits to patients. The most obvious benefit is considerable weight loss--up to 100 pounds or more. But there are also other important health advantages. For example, for a majority of diabetic and hypertensive patients, the gastric bypass means a complete remission of type 2 diabetes and hypertension. Some research indicates gastric bypass surgery decreases the risk for cancer. In addition, depression significantly abates after gastric bypass surgery.
Major Weight Loss
Walter J. Pories, surgery professor at East Carolina University in North Carolina, reported that 1,104 patients at three months after gastric bypass had lost an average 41.2 percent of their excess weight. By 24 months, 88.9 percent of the excess weight loss was lost. The amount of original excess weight that was lost then stabilized at 87.7 percent at the three-year point.
New Zealand gastroenterologist Sarah White and colleagues reported on 342 severely obese subjects who had a gastric bypass. The average pre-operative body mass index (BMI) of these subjects was 44. Ten years later, the surgery subjects had an average BMI of 31.2. These are considered excellent results.
Cure for Type 2 Diabetes
Pories found 80.5 percent of gastric bypass patients with diabetes prior to their surgery experienced a remission of their diabetes postoperatively. In the study by White, 85 percent who had type 2 diabetes before the surgery were cured after surgery. The only other known cure for diabetes is a pancreatic transplant, a delicate and costly procedure.
Hypertension Cured
Many obese people have hypertension, and this problem is often resolved after gastric bypass surgery. Pories found nearly two-thirds, or 63.3 percent, of those who had hypertension before gastric bypass were cured of hypertension after the surgery. White had similar results. Of hypertensive subjects, 62 percent had remission of their high blood pressure following surgery.
Cancer Risks Cut
Ted D. Adams of the University of Utah School of Medicine and colleagues compared the incidence of cancer and the death rate from cancer between 6,596 Utah patients who had gastric bypass from 1984 to 2002 to severely obese individuals over the same period who did not have the procedure. Both the incidence of cancer and death from cancer was significantly lower in the bypass group. For example, the rate of incidence of all types of cancers was 3.13 per 1,000 persons among the surgery group, compared to 4.28 in the control group. Deaths from cancer were 46 percent lower in the gastric bypass group than the control group. Findings suggested that gastric bypass results in lower cancer risk, presumably related to weight loss, and support the recommendation for reducing weight in order to lower cancer risk.
Depression Relief
Depression is a common problem among obese people; however, Pories found that of subjects with depression before the study, nearly one-third, or 31.4 percent, were cured of their depression after their gastric bypass, which is a a dramatic improvement.
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