FACTS AND OPINIONS

• The Dynamic Relationship Between Stress and Wellness
• Basics of Traumatic Brain Injury & this author's residual problems
• Obesity surgery cures more than cosmetic problems

OBESITY SURGERY CAN CURE MORE THAN COSMETIC PROBLEMS

Associated Press article by Lindsey Tanner, AP Medical Writer

Obesity surgery helps patients do more than shed weight - it often cures their diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol, researchers say.

The research - an analysis of 136 studies - found that such operations are more than cosmetic. They appear to alter the patient's body chemistry itself and eliminate or relieve conditions that can lead to heart attacks, strokes and kidney failure.

The analysis was funded by 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 where breathing stops during sleep - disappeared in almost 86%.

All four conditions are strongly linked to obesity and can have lethal consequences.

The study appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

University of Minnesota surgeon, Dr. Henry Buchwald, the study's lead author and a consultant to the Johnson & Johnson subsidiary, said there is evidence that when the intestinal tract is rearranged in obesity surgery, patients who were diabetic are "cured" even before shedding significant amounts of weight.