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Bariatric surgery reduces heart risk

NEW YORK, March 30 (UPI) -- Bariatric surgery – weight loss through surgery -- reduces the risk of heart attack and stroke for those with diabetes, a researcher from Sweden suggests.

Dr. Lars Sjostrom of the Institute of Medicine in Goteborg, Sweden, reported on 20 years of data from the Swedish Obese Subjects, comparing 2,010 bariatric surgeries with 2,037 non-surgical patients who received medical treatment or lifestyle modification for obesity.

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"Type 2 diabetes has always been considered a chronic, lifelong disease, but the long-term data show remission in 70 percent of patients after two years of follow-up," Sjostrom said in a statement."Thirty percent are still in remission 15 years after bariatric surgery. Even more remarkable, 20 years out, we have seen that bariatric surgery has reduced new cases of diabetes by 80 percent among obese patients who did not have the disease at the start of the study."

Sjostrom said the incidence of heart attack or stroke was 30 percent lower among post-surgical patients than among who did not have bariatric surgery counterparts.

The findings were presented at the 2nd World Congress on Interventional Therapies for Type 2 Diabetes, hosted by NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and Weill Cornell Medical College.

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