article in the omaha world herald today...

Published Wednesday October 13, 2004 Obesity surgery is good for more than weight loss CHICAGO (AP) - 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 and eliminate or 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 percent of the affected patients; high blood pressure was eliminated in nearly 62 percent; cholesterol improved in at least 70 percent; and obstructive sleep apnea - episodes when breathing stops during sleep - disappeared in almost 86 percent. All four conditions are strongly linked to obesity and can have lethal consequences. The study appears in today's Journal of the American Medical Association. Dr. Henry Buchwald of the University of Minnesota, 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 they start shedding significant amounts of weight. That may be because such operations alter the intestinal hormones, he said. Also, doctors have long known that losing weight helps improve blood pressure and cholesterol levels by reducing stress on the cardiovascular system. The studies involved 22,094 patients ages 16 to 64, at least two-thirds of them women.