Originally published January 19 2005
Gastric surgery is much better than dieting for helping people lose weight
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
According to a Swedish study, obesity is treated much more effectively through surgery than by putting people on diets. In fact, gastric surgery led to a 23% weight loss after 2 years and a 16% loss after 10 years, whereas the dieters showed no weight loss over the same period. However, a final benefit surprised the researchers: the people who had the surgery were actually much more active after they lost the weight, allowing them to be even healthier.
Gastric surgery is a more effective way to fight severe obesity than dieting, according to a Swedish study cited in the media here on Thursday.
The researchers found that people who had surgery bypassing their large intestine were 23 percent below their previous weight after two years, and still 16 percent lower after 10 years.
But dieters reported no weight loss over the same periods of time, and even grew slightly heavier, according to the study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
People who had surgery also became more active and suffered less from associated illnesses such as diabetes.
"That low physical activity causes people to become overweight is well-known," the author of the study, Lars Sjoestroem of Gothenburg university, told the daily Dagens Nyheter.
"But we did not expect to find that there is also a very strong inverse relationship - obesity leads to low physical activity and weight loss breaks the vicious cycle."
The research project, which began in 1987 and involves 4 000 people, is to continue for another two years to see whether weight loss, increased activity and less diabetes translates into a longer life expectancy.
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