Scientists spot key
players in surgery’s
surprising ability to
reverse diabetes
Just in time to combat the obesity epidemic sweeping the United States, a surgery called gastric bypass is riding a host of molecular and clinical findings to emerge as the
preferred operation for severely overweight people. There is no shortage of
patients; fully one-third of U.S. adults are
now obese.
Gastric bypass has gained popularity in part because it takes the pounds
off. The operation leaves the stomach
smaller, meaning a patient gets full
faster, eats less and loses weight at a
steady pace. Other common obesity surgeries have those effects too, but gastric
bypass also reverses type 2 diabetes in
most people, an outcome that bordered
on alchemy when first noticed years ago.
New research clarifies the molecular
players that make this medical sleight
of hand possible, as well as revealing
other potential payoffs of the digestive changes — less heart disease, fewer
breathing problems and lower blood
pressure.
Electing to have major surgery is a
In the United States, up to 70 percent
of people who get elective weight-loss
surgery go with gastric bypass.
tough call; gastric bypass doesn’t always
succeed. Patients can backslide, regaining lost weight. And about 10 percent of
the surgeries have complications that
can result in infections, blood clots or
the need for repeat surgery.
But many who witness the effects of
gastric bypass firsthand suggest that the
hard evidence has now tipped the scales
in favor of the operation.
“Everything we do in medicine is
a risk-and-benefit assessment,” says
Guilherme Campos, a surgeon at the
University of Wisconsin–Madison. For
NICOLLE RAGER FULLER
www.sciencenews.org
