Another Reason for Weight Loss Surgery- Slows Your Ageing!

Weight Loss Surgery slows ageing?

What is comes to your mind when you think of undergoing weight loss surgery? Naturally, you think of getting the surgery done for losing weight. However, it has been found that bariatric surgery does much more than just helping you shed those extra pounds and reduce the risk of diabetes and cardiovascular problems, the surgery has shown to slows down the aging process in many!

Recent studies in Bariatric surgery

A recent study at Stanford University has shown some interesting facts showing obesity surgery affecting the aging mechanism in human cells. The study shows that weight loss resulting from obesity surgery may have done changes in the patients’ genetic functioning which may have slowed down the aging process in them.

What we loose with Obesity and Age

Normally with aging, the telomeres which are the ends of the genes’ tips or caps typically get shorter until the cell is no longer able to reproduce. However, researchers found that the telomeres actually grew longer in certain people who underwent gastric bypass surgery (a type of weight loss surgery). With this process of telomeres growing longer, the effect of aging is likely to get reversed, proposed Dr John Morton, Stanford’s chief of bariatric surgery and president-elect of the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery. 

The change in the length of telomeres is only 2-3% which is within the margin of error, i.e. the normal range of variation in length of telomeres, however, the findings are such that need to be looked at more closely.

The study showed that the benefit was greatest among the sickest i.e. individuals who were not only heavy but had other problems such as chronic inflammation and heart disease. This surprising finding invites more research about genetic effects of bariatric surgery, suggested Morton. Although the study did not show the reversal of some signs of aging such as weight loss surgery smoothing wrinkles or preventing gray hair but there were some actual visual changes beyond weight loss as proposed by Morton.

"What this study showed, as I interpret it, is that the gastric bypass and resultant weight loss led to restoration of telomere function and chromosomal preservation. If indeed the weight loss does have a positive effect on preservation of DNA and how it functions, that is a remarkable finding.”

In the study, the patients were mostly women who had an average age of 49 years and had BMI of 44.3 which is considered morbid obesity.  The patients on an average lost 71 percent of their excess body weight through gastric bypass surgery. Evidently, their levels of C-reactive protein or CRP dropped more than 60 percent and their fasting insulin level declined four fold. It is to be noted that in patients with high levels of LDL or bad cholesterol and inflammation before the operation, the telomeres lengthened as compared to patients with lower levels.

How Gastric Bypass surgery works?

Gastric bypass surgery works by making the stomach smaller and digestive system shorter. The procedure involves dividing the stomach into a small upper pouch and a larger lower pouch and then arranges the small intestine to allow both pouches to stay connected to it accordingly.

Gastric Bypass reduces the size of the stomach and bypasses
the small intestine 

Since the stomach has been made smaller in size, it limits the food the stomach can hold, thereby leading to lesser intake of food. Also, the food bypasses a portion of small intestine which leads to lesser calorie absorption and thus effective weight loss. The results of gastric bypass surgery are quite promising- people who underwent gastric bypass have been able to lose upto 80% of their excess in the first two years of the surgery. 

So, you have now another reason to lose weight- Your weight loss surgery may slow down the aging process in you!!

Why wait then? For an affordable weight loss surgery in India, write to us at info@indicure.com or call / WhatsApp us at +91 93200 36777