- Researchers say bariatric weight-loss surgery can significantly reduce the risk of obesity-related cancers.
- They say these latest findings build on previous research that shows the benefits of getting bariatric surgery.
- Experts say they hope the new research will encourage people with obesity to have the procedure done.
Bariatric surgery can help people with obesity to obtain and maintain a healthier weight, and as a result can help save their lives.
In fact, undergoing the weight-reduction surgery can slash the risk of obesity-related cancer by more than half over the course of a decade, suggests a new study presented at the Digestive Disease Week 2023 conference.
The study, which hasn’t been published yet in a peer-reviewed journal, represents the latest in a growing body of research demonstrating that bariatric surgery can help reduce the risk of obesity-linked cancer.
Experts say the study demonstrates more than most other research just how dramatically bariatric surgery can cut the risk of obesity-related cancer.
The study also involved more than 100,000 participants, a much larger-scale study than others that focused on weight-reduction procedures reducing cancer associated with obesity. The study’s 10-year span also exceeds that of most other research on the topic.
“I think this study will really get people’s attention, especially when we can now say bariatric surgery reduces the risk of obesity-related cancers by more than half,” Dr. Akuezunkpa Welcome, a bariatric surgeon and chief of surgery at the NYU Langone Health in New York, told Medical News Today.
Bariatric surgery has been shown to reduce heart disease and stroke, high blood pressure, sleep apnea, type 2 diabetes, and gout while increasing life expectancy.
It also often can also improve people’s outlook, mental health, relationships, employability, and fertility.
However, Welcome said such benefits often aren’t enough to inspire obese people to undergo the surgery.
“But,” she added,…
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