Weight-Loss Surgery Helps Decrease The Risk Of Type 2 Diabetes

Though weight-loss surgeries can be risky, recent findings published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology reveal that this can dramatically reduce the risk of high blood pressure and high cholesterol, along with type 2 diabetes.

"Our results suggest that bariatric surgery may be a highly effective method of preventing the onset of new diabetes in men and women with severe obesity," said lead study author Martin Guillford, a professor of public health at the King's College London, via WebMD."We need to understand how weight-loss surgery can be used, together with interventions to increase physical activity and promote healthy eating, as part of an overall diabetes prevention strategy."

For the study, researchers included more than 2,100 obese adults without diabetes who underwent weight-loss surgery, including gastric bypass or gastric banding. Participants were followed up with for seven years.

Investigators found that those who ha weight-loss surgery-also known as "bariatric" surgery-were about 80 percent less likely to develop diabetes than those who did not.

Statistics show that more than one-third (34.9% or 78.6 million) of U.S. adults are obese, increasing the risk of numerous obesity-related health conditions, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).