Of all the various reasons my patients share for why they decided to seek gastric sleeve surgery, there is one factor that every patient has in common: a desire to get healthier. Some of the obvious health-related benefits include a longer life expectancy, lower blood pressure, and a healthier heart. Now, exciting research may give us something new to add to that list: a significant decrease in your risk for developing cancer.
What the New Research Tells Us
A team of researchers looked at the data from over 20,000 patients who had bariatric surgeries like gastric sleeve and followed their health for several years after their surgery. A separate control group of patients with similar statistics (average BMI of 46) who did not have bariatric surgery were also followed as a point of comparison.
The patients who had bariatric surgery were 25% less likely to develop cancer than the control group. Even more impressively, the patients who had bariatric surgery were 43% less likely to die from cancer. The statistics showed the benefits are especially strong for female patients who had bariatric surgery.
Making Sense of the Data
Previously, studies have found that people who are obese (have a BMI over 30) are more at risk for cancer than people in a healthy weight range. However, researchers had not fully explored whether patients who lowered their BMI could reduce their risks for cancer. This new study has helped to illuminate the power that bariatric surgery can have in potentially preventing cancer.
At this point, doctors can only theorize how bariatric surgery helps lower one’s risk for cancer. Since excess body fat generates more estrogen — and estrogen production may be a driving force behind breast cancer, ovarian cancer, and uterine cancer — this could explain why women especially benefit from losing weight with bariatric surgery.
While the latest findings certainly warrant further studies and analysis, it is possible that doctors may one day recommend bariatric surgery to their obese oncology patients in the hope of improving their risk of surviving cancer.
Choose a Healthier Future
While having bariatric surgery is no guarantee that you will have cancer, lowering your risk is certainly a great reason to have surgery — in addition to all the other healthful benefits. To learn more about having gastric sleeve at my world-class surgical center just minutes from the U.S. border, please call 1-800-381-8115 or book a free consultation online today!
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“Changing lives…one sleeve at a time”.
