Another day, another powerful piece of data that supports the argument for weight loss surgery. 

This time the study was based on 34,000 obese patients, over 8,000 of whom underwent weight loss surgery. It was published this week in The Journal of the American medical Association. Those who had surgery were less than half as likely to die in the following 4 years as those obese patients whose doctors gave them weight loss information and support only.

Importantly it didn’t matter much whether the surgery patients had gastric band, gastric sleeve or gastric bypass. The risk of death within 4 years for non-surgical patients reduced most with gastric bypass (2.65) , next was band (2) and then came sleeve (1.65).

The study went on to review how results with gastric sleeve and gastric bypass compare. It found that weight loss in the 5 years after surgery were similar and patients for both procedures saw a significant benefit in terms of their weight related health problems, e.g. type 2 diabetes, hypertension etc. The main difference in the procedure outcomes are shown with their impact on acid reflux symptoms. Those patients having sleeve were 32% more likely to see a worsening of their acid reflux, whereas gastric bypass surgery cures most patients of reflux symptoms. 

So, if you have a BMI over 30 and you want to reduce your risk of death in the years ahead, then you should seriously consider weight loss surgery.