TODAY Show Profiles Womans Success after Sleeve Gastrectomy… STAMPEDE Data Suggests First-Year Weight Loss Key to Long-Term Glycemic Control… Apollo Endosurgery Launch European Bariatric Registry for Endoscopic Suturing Procedure… Reality TV Star Shares What She Learned after Gastric Bypass… Obesity Linked to Increased Risk of Afib… Columnist: Metabolically Healthy Obesity Carries Higher Risk of Metabolic Syndrome…Bloomberg Editorial Board: In Fight Against Obesity, Keep the Sugar Taxes Coming… Millennials May be the Generation with Highest Obesity Rate
Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery in the News
‘Every Day I Got More Discouraged’: How This Woman Lost Almost 200 Pounds
Today
TODAY show story profiles 21-year-old Tess Fitzgerald, a woman with obesity and polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), a hormonal disorder which can cause insulin resistance and weight gain, who had sleeve gastrectomy. After being diagnosed with PCOS, a specialist prescribed an anti-diabetic medication to treat the insulin resistance, but it made Fitzgerald sick and she couldnt take it. She says her PCOS made her always hungry and “the weight was pouring on.” Fitzgerald, who weighed 347 pounds, would eventually enter a program at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston to lose weight. After losing 40 pounds on her own, she had sleeve gastrectomy. Maintaining a healthy diet and adding exercise to her routine after surgery helped Fitzgerald lose 150 pounds in six months. While happy with her success, she still felt uncomfortable due to her excessive skin, which caused rashes, so in January 2018, she had the skin removed.
After Bariatric Surgery, First-Year Weight Loss May be Key to Improved, Long-Term Glycemic Control
Healio | Endocrine Today
A post hoc analysis of the STAMPEDE trial presented
at the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists annual meeting found acute, first-year weight loss after
bariatric surgery in adults with obesity and type 2 diabetes was associated with improved HbA1c at five years even
if the patient experienced weight regain. Researchers analyzed data from 96 adults with type 2 diabetes and BMIs
27-43 who were randomly assigned to gastric bypass (n = 49) or sleeve gastrectomy (n = 47). In the first year, mean
percent weight loss was 27.2 percent in the bypass group and 25.1 percent in the sleeve group, while mean percent of
weight regain from the first year to five years was 8.2 percent and 9.4 percent, respectively. In patients who had
gastric bypass, researchers found that less weight loss in the first year after surgery was positively correlated
with higher HbA1c at five years. In the sleeve gastrectomy patient group, greater weight regain from nadir was
positively correlated with higher HbA1c at five years. “Despite some of these patients regaining 10 percent of their
weight or more, that really didnt impact their five-year HbA1c,” said study author Keren Zhou, MD, endocrinology
fellow at Cleveland Clinic. “It was acute weight loss, in both the Roux-en-Y and the sleeve gastrectomy groups,
which greatly influenced their five-year HbA1c.”
New Registry to Track Bariatric Flexible Endoscopic Suturing Procedures
Healio | Endocrine Today
Apollo Endosurgery announced it is launching a registry to track bariatric flexible endoscopic suturing procedures throughout Europe. The multicenter, longitudinal data repository will track both endoscopic sleeve gastroplasty and gastrojejunal anastomotic revision procedures and collect information on outcomes related to the safety and efficacy of the procedures, according to a press release. “The European Bariatric Registry for endoscopic suturing is a great opportunity to create a repository of data on endo-bariatric primary and revision procedures coming from the most important centers in the region,” Gontrand Lopez-Nava, MD, director of the bariatric endoscopy unit department at the University Hospital HM Sanchinarro in Madrid said in the press release. “Bariatric endoscopy will play a decisive role in the treatment of obesity for patients looking for non-invasive procedures.” The registry will start collecting information immediately.
Gastric-Bypass Surgery: Here’s What I’ve Learned
Orlando Sentinel
Jamie Nestrick of “My 600-lb Life” shares what she learned from her successful weight loss of 141 pounds after gastric bypass surgery. Before bariatric surgery, she “tried everything” to lose weight, including Weight Watchers, Atkins, Nutrisystem, and numerous fad diets. Nestrick says she was hesitant to get surgery because bariatric patients still have to adopt a healthy lifestyle after surgery and “if she had to overhaul her lifestyle anyway, she may as well do it herself, without cheating.” After researching weight loss surgery, however, she realized it was not the easy way out. For patients considering weight loss surgery, she advises “its not a magic cure-all that banishes food addiction and obliterates fat cells and eliminates fat and sugar cravings.” After surgery, Nestrick completely changed her diet and adopted a serious exercise regimen. She writes the only regret she has is that she “let some false ideal of doing it the right way keep [her] from having the surgery 10 years sooner.”
Obesity in the News
Obesity Tied to Risk of Irregular Heart Rhythm in Both Genders
Reuters
Men and women who have obesity or overweight may be more likely to develop the irregular heart rhythm disorder atrial fibrillation (Afib) than their counterparts who maintain a healthy weight, a study in the Journal of the American Heart Association suggests. For the study, researchers examined survey data from 24,799 adults in Norway who were followed for an average of about 16 years to see how their weight impacted their chance of developing Afib. During the study period, 811 men and 918 women developed Afib. Men with extreme obesity were more than four times as likely to develop Afib than men who maintained a healthy weight; women with extreme obesity had twice the risk than women at a healthy weight. Higher BMIs were tied with a higher risk for atrial fibrillation even if the participants had a milder form of overweight or obesity. Compared to a BMI of 23, men with a BMI of 25 were 14 percent more likely to develop Afib. Additionally, women with a BMI of 20 had an 11 percent lower risk of developing Afib than women with a BMI of 23.
Can Obesity Be Healthy?
Medscape
While the concept of “metabolically healthy obesity” has been around for a while, a new study suggests that people who carry extra weight without having high blood pressure, glucose intolerance, or high cholesterol are at an increased risk of developing metabolic syndrome. The study of more than 6,800 individuals found that metabolically healthy obesity at baseline did not predict a person’s future risk for cardiovascular morbidity or mortality. Almost half of the patients with metabolically healthy obesity eventually developed metabolic syndrome, raising their cardiovascular risk. The longer a person was metabolically unhealthy, the higher the risk. The columnist, a practicing internist, says early identification of patients with metabolically healthy obesity is an opportunity for primary prevention and that “we can’t assume our metabolically healthy obese patients will remain that way.”
Tax Soda to Fight Obesity
Bloomberg
Bloombergs Editorial Board says that taxes on sugary beverages to curb increasing obesity prevalence is a good policy and needs to be taken further. They say that taxes on sugar “wont solve the worlds obesity problem,” but theyre helping, and governments everywhere should tax sugar to persuade people to cut back. More than 30 countries have put new taxes on sugary beverages, most in just the past four years. According to the editors, taxes clearly steer people away from added sugar, and in particular lower-income people who are more price-sensitive and suffer disproportionately from obesity and diabetes. The editors say sugar taxes should be smarter as well as higher; most taxes are applied per unit of liquid when it would be better to set them per unit of sugar, thus encouraging beverage makers to minimize sugar content per can or bottle. The U.K.s new soda tax is higher for soda with more than 8 grams of sugar per 100 milliliters than for those with 5 to 8 grams, which prompted companies to reduce sugar content even before the tax went into effect, the editors note.
Millennials are Set to be the Most Obese Generation Since Records Began
Evening Standard
via Business Insider
Millennials are set to be the most overweight generation since records began, with more than seven in 10 people born between the early 1980s and mid-1990s projected to have overweight or obesity between the ages of 35 and 44, according to Cancer Research UK. Researchers made the calculations based on Health Survey for England data. Experts warn that having overweight or obesity as an adult is linked to 13 different types of cancer including breast, bowel, and kidney cancer, but only 15 percent of people in the UK are aware of the link. Cancer Research UK is launching a campaign to increase awareness that obesity is a major cause of cancer.