Why do some people need bariatric surgery?
Obese individuals are at far greater risk of dying of an obesity-associated disease (such as diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, respiratory disease and others). Obesity accounts for more than 280,000 deaths annually in the United States and will soon overtake smoking as the primary preventable cause of death if current trends continue. Weight loss by conventional therapies, such as diet, exercise, behavioral modification, or by anti-obesity medications, have a less than one-percent long-term success rate for obese individuals. Weight-loss surgery can help the morbidly obese achieve long-term success. For more information, please read the editorial Obesity in the United States on the Journals of the American Medical Association’s website.
