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Categories
General
Bariatric Surgery Can Prevent Premature Aging
posted by Admin User at 2016-07-19 10:07:00
It is well known that carrying around extra weight can have deleterious effects on the body both physically and mentally…but did you know that people suffering from obesity are also at risk for premature aging? This is mostly due to the inflammation that additional fat tissue causes. In fact, the more someone weighs, the older their cells appear, therefore adding what is estimated as the equivalent of nine years to a person's body.
But now, there is exciting new research showing that bariatric surgery might actually help reverse the signs of premature aging that is associated with obesity. The study was presented this week at the 2016 Frontiers in Cardiovascular Biology that took place in Florence, Italy.
The research analyzed data from 76 patients who had an average age of 40 years old and a body mass index (BMI) of at least 35 kg/m2, with the average BMI being 44.5 kg/m2. Every patient had been referred for bariatric surgery after failing to lose weight through other interventions.
Blood samples were taken from the study participants before surgery, and one and two years after the surgery. They were used to compare aging markers present in the blood before and after bariatric surgery. The results showed that telomeres were 80% longer than they had been pre-surgery – telomeres are the internal clock of a cell, which get shorter with age.
"Obese people are prematurely old," said lead author Dr. Philipp Hohensinner, a researcher at the Medical University of Vienna in Vienna, Austria. "They have an increased level of inflammation, with higher levels of inflammatory cytokines (small proteins important in cell signaling) in their fat tissue. Obese people also have shorter telomeres at the end of their chromosomes.”
“Obesity, and specifically having a lot of fat tissue, seems to put the entire body under increased stress”. Dr. Hohensinner said. “By losing weight and therefore adipose (fat) tissue, that stress reduces, and the body becomes younger. This is positive news for patients who have bariatric surgery because it shows that the damage from obesity can be reversed. Bariatric surgery drastically reduces the amount of food patients can eat. People lose around 30 to 40% of their whole body weight in the first year.”
Once again, the benefits of bariatric surgery extend far beyond just that of weight loss – this is why surgical interventions for weight loss are a widely accepted treatment option for those suffering from overweight and obesity, as well as health conditions associated with carrying around extra weight.
