Study lauds results of weight-loss
procedure
December 23, 2004
By Delthia Ricks
In longest-running study of its kind, Swedish doctors
report favorable cholesterol, blood-sugar and weight
drop levels outweigh risks
When Manhattan heart specialist Dr. William Frumkin
admonished patients about weight, they looked at him
in shock. Frumkin weighed 433 pounds.
But last year the doctor underwent weight-loss or bariatric
surgery, in which stomach size is reduced with a lapband.
"I've lost 190 pounds and I am keeping it off.
It's the best thing I've ever done in my life - along
with getting married," Frumkin said.
Now, doctors in Sweden who have conducted the world's
longest-running study of bariatric surgery have confirmed
the operation offers more benefits than risks.
Led by Dr. Lars Sjostrom of Sahlgrenska University
Hospital in G"teborg, the team studied more than
4,000 people, about half of whom underwent bariatric
surgery. The others went on diets. After a decade, surgery
patients were 16 percent under original weight. The
control group had gained.
"This demonstrates, as far as I'm concerned, that
bariatric surgery is validated," said Dr. Mitch
Roslin, Frumkin's colleague, and chief of bariatric
surgery at Lenox Hill Hospital.
Blood sugar levels dropped in the surgery patients,
eliminating the clinical signs of diabetes. Levels of
fats called triglycerides declined while HDL, the good
cholesterol, rose.
Though those studied underwent an older stapling technique,
Roslin said the finding is a boon to the field and provides
encouragement to the obese.
Frumkin, who specializes in the electrical function
of the heart, implants pacemakers and other devices.
"I have always encouraged patients to lose
weight, but they do not always listen," Frumkin
said. "And I have to admit that patients who were
heavy actually liked me as their doctor because I was
heavy, too.
"In college I was like 240 pounds; it's hard to
say exactly when I hit 400," Frumkin said. "
... 10 pounds here and 10 pounds there. After 15 years
of marriage that amounts to a lot of weight."
Roslin said he is pleased that the Swedish study is
complete. "I think it conclusively shows that surgery
is the only long-lasting treatment for morbid obesity."
He emphasized surgery is intended for the morbidly obese:
A woman who is 5-foot-4 and weighs 230 pounds, or a
5-foot-10 man who weighs 270.
"No one should think of surgery as a cure,"
Roslin said. "It does not give anyone a pass on
exercising or a ticket to eat anything they want."
Two editors of the New England Journal of Medicine
who critiqued the study said while the decrease in diabetes
and other health problems are welcomed, the analysis
leaves open whether such weight loss boosts life expectancy.
Frumkin said dramatic weight loss has many psychological
dimensions. "I still think of myself as a fat person
... People come up to me and tell me how great I look.
People who are heavy are not used to having so much
attention paid to them."
Source:www.newsday.com
|
