Obesity surgery can cure diabetes, high blood pressure and other ills.

2004 NOV 4 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Patients who undergo obesity, or bariatric, surgery get far more than cosmetic benefits, many also shed fat-related ailments including diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol, researchers say.

Their report, an analysis of 136 studies, suggests that in some cases, the drastic operations may alter the patient's body chemistry itself and relieve conditions that can lead to heart attacks, strokes and kidney failure.

The analysis was funded by a Johnson & Johnson Co. subsidiary that develops and markets surgical instruments, including staplers for obesity surgery. But the results echo what many doctors have reported seeing.

Diabetes was eliminated in nearly 77% of the affected patients; high blood pressure was eliminated in nearly 62%; cholesterol improved in at least 70%; and obstructive sleep apnea, episodes when breathing stops during sleep, disappeared in almost 86%. All 4 conditions are strongly linked to obesity and can have lethal consequences.

While significant weight loss by means of diet, exercise or medication can have similar benefits, obesity surgery patients typically lose at least 30% of their body weight and keep it off long term, results that are extremely difficult to achieve with other methods, said Samuel Klein, MD, a Washington University obesity specialist who was not involved in the research.

The study appeared in the October 13, 2004, Journal of the American Medical Association.

About two-thirds of U.S. adults are overweight, and of those, almost half are grossly overweight, or obese. Surgery in which the stomach is reduced or restricted is typically reserved for people who are at least 100 pounds heavier than their recommended weight and for whom other weight-loss methods have failed.