Bariatric Surgery Reverses Hypogonadism… Teens Mental Health Diagnoses Does Not Affect One-Year Weight-Loss After Bariatric Surgery… Bariatric Surgery Linked to Reduced Risk of Acute Kidney Injury… Obesity Influences Likelihood of Taking Up Smoking… Long-Term Study Finds Women with Metabolically Healthy Obesity Have Increased Risk of Cardiovascular Disease… Childhood Obesity Rates Higher in Southern Europe than in US… Social Medias Role in the Obesity Epidemic
Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery in the News
In Severe Obesity, Bariatric Surgery Induces Rapid Reversal of Hypogonadism
Healio | Endocrine Today
Men with severe obesity and hypogonadism who underwent sleeve gastrectomy experienced a marked increase in testosterone and prostate-specific antigen and a reduction in serum estradiol during the one month following the procedure, according to findings presented at the European Congress on Obesity annual meeting. In an observational study, researchers analyzed data from 29 men with a mean BMI of 43.4 one month before and one month after sleeve gastrectomy. At baseline, 51.6 percent of the men had hypogonadism, and 45.2 percent of those men had metabolic syndrome. One month after surgery, the men lost a mean 17.2 kg and only 11.6 percent had hypogonadism. Testosterone levels rose from to a mean of 10.8 pmol/L from 18.9 pmol/L, prostate-specific antigen levels rose from a mean of 0.74 µg/L to 1 µg/L and mean estradiol levels fell to 96.1 pmol/L from 124.4 pmol/L. Body weight reduction, through fat mass reduction, reverses hypogonadism, said Marco Rossato, MD, PhD, an endocrinologist and andrologist at the University of Padova School of Medicine in Italy. The faster the body weight reduction is, the faster rescue from hypogonadism.
Psychiatric Diagnoses did not Predict Teens’ Weight Loss after Bariatric Surgery
Healio | Infectious Diseases in Children
Although teenagers with severe obesity who undergo sleeve gastrectomy have high rates of anxiety, depression and eating disorders, these mental health diagnoses do not affect BMI decreases 12 months after surgery, findings published in Pediatrics suggest. To assess the relationship between psychiatric diagnoses received before surgery and weight loss achieved 3 and 12 months after surgery, researchers conducted interviews of teens who were given a referral for mental health evaluation at an institution for bariatric surgery. Researchers also compared the prevalence and number of psychiatric diagnoses in teenagers who did not undergo surgery with those who did undergo surgery. Of the 222 adolescents referred for psychological evaluation at the bariatric surgery institution, 169 underwent surgery and 53 did not. The teenagers had a range of zero to five diagnoses with 71 percent of teenagers having at least one mental health diagnosis and over one-third with two or more diagnoses. Using longitudinal modeling, no differences were observed between the rates or the number of psychiatric diagnoses between teenagers who underwent bariatric surgery and those who did not. When weight loss was examined at 3 months after surgery, excess BMI decreased by 37 percent on average, 45.9 percent at six months, 50.8 percent after 9 months and 52.9 percent after 12 months. No psychiatric diagnoses, the number of diagnoses or the patient demographics significantly contributed to the percentage of excess BMI lost 12 months after surgery.
Bariatric Surgery Associated with Protective Effects Against AKI
Healio | Nephrology News & Issues
Bariatric surgery is associated with protective effects against acute kidney injury, according to a study published in BMJ Open. Although investigators found an increased risk of acute kidney injury within the first 30 days after surgery, the overall effect of the procedure on the incidence of acute kidney injury was beneficial. The propensity-matched cohort study included 2,643 patients who had bariatric surgery with a median follow-up of 2.9 years and 2,595 patients who did not have surgery. Over the whole period of follow-up, bariatric surgery had a net protective effect on risk of acute kidney injury with a rate ratio of 0.45.
Obesity in the News
Genetic Obesity Risk Tied to Smoking
Reuters
Findings published in The BMJ indicate that extra body fat influences the likelihood of taking up smoking and how heavily a person smokes, or that the urges to overeat and to smoke may share some genetic origins. Researchers analyzed data from the UK Biobank and the TAG Consortium on more than 450,000 people of European descent. These databases contain genetic, medical and lifestyle information for their volunteer participants. Researchers found that every additional 4.6 increase in BMI was associated with a 5 percent lower risk of being a current smoker but also a 12 percent higher risk of ever having been a smoker, compared to never-smokers. The same BMI increment was also linked to a smoking-intensity increase of 1.75 cigarettes per day for current and former smokers combined. When researchers looked at the genetic body fat profile, they found that each incremental increase in projected BMI based on SNPs was linked to 24 percent higher odds of being a current smoker and an 18 percent increase in odds of being a former smoker.
New Study Casts Doubt on “Healthy Obesity” for Women
HealthDay via CBS News
Women with obesity who have been healthy for decades may still be on the path to heart problems, a study in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology suggests. Researchers collected data on more than 90,000 U.S. women who took part in the Nurses’ Health Study and didn’t have heart disease. The women were followed from 1980 to 2010. Over an average of 24 years, 6,300 women developed cardiovascular disease, including 3,300 who had heart attacks and 3,000 who suffered strokes, the findings showed. Eighty-four percent of women with obesity who were metabolically healthy and 68 percent of normal-weight metabolically healthy women became metabolically unhealthy over the course of 20 years. Women with obesity who were metabolically healthy over the 20 years had a 57 percent higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease, the study authors reported. Women who had metabolic disease but were still a normal weight were about 2.5 times more likely to develop cardiovascular disease, compared with normal-weight women with no metabolic abnormalities.
Childhood Obesity is High in Home of Mediterranean Diet
CNN
The Mediterranean diet may be well-known for its positive effects on cardiovascular and metabolic health, yet new data from the World Health Organization shows childhood obesity rates in the Mediterranean region are among the highest in the world. The report from the WHO presented at the European Congress on Obesity in Vienna, indicated that of 34 countries in the European region, the countries of Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Malta, San Marino and Spain had the highest rates of childhood obesity. Approximately one in five boys has obesity in these countries (18% to 21% of boys). Childhood obesity is more prevalent in this region than in the United States, where approximately 17 percent of children have obesity, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Childhood obesity was over twice as prevalent in southern European countries than in northern European countries such as Denmark, Ireland and Norway, where rates of obesity in boys and girls ranged between 5 percent and 9 percent, according to the report. The researchers say the high obesity rates in Southern Europe is due to the loss of the traditional Mediterranean diet patterns and increased intake of sugary and unhealthy foods and lower levels of physical activity. Despite the high rates of childhood obesity in much of southern Europe, the prevalence has leveled off or slightly decreased in many of these countries since the previous WHO report, according to the researchers.
Social Media May Play a Bigger Part in the Obesity Epidemic Than We Thought
Men’s Health
According to new research, social media may be partially to blame for a massive obesity epidemic. Researchers from the University of Liverpool found that children who see or watch their favorite social media stars consuming high-calorie and sugary treats are more likely to choose the unhealthy treats themselves. Researchers assigned 176 children into three groups, and showed each group a different image from social media. One group was shown an image of their favorite personalities promoting unhealthy snacks; another group was shown healthy foods; and the third group was shown non-food products. After viewing the images, the children were offered an array of healthy and unhealthy snacks, including grapes, carrot sticks, chocolate buttons, and jelly candy. Children who had viewed the unhealthy images consumed an average of 448 calories. Those who viewed healthy foods or non-food images consumed just 357 calories a 26-percent difference. Following the study’s release, Professor Russell Viner, president of the Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health, called on the British government to consider more regulation to protect children as part of its childhood obesity strategy. It’s vital that children are protected from the marketing of junk food, not only on TV but also online where they are increasingly spending time,” he said. “Companies are able to target their adverts on social media, which does provide the opportunity for regulators to put restrict in place.”