Obesity surgery eclipses miracle weight-loss drugs like Wegovy when it comes to saving lives, research shows.
Slimming injections are in short supply due to unprecedented demand from those who want to copy famous users, including Sharon Osbourne and Oprah Winfrey.
But a new study finds they are less effective at preventing premature deaths among obese patients from weight-related diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer.
Around 7,000 people a year in the UK undergo (bariatric) surgery for obesity.
To qualify for the NHS, your body mass index must be 40 or more.
Scientists at Hasharon Hospital in Israel suggest that obesity surgery carries greater long-term benefits and is more effective at preventing premature death than weight-loss injections.
More than 6,000 obese patients, with an average age of 51, were followed for six years in the study, which found that those who underwent surgery were 62 percent less likely to die from obesity-related health problems. than those treated with Ozempic-style injections (file photo)
Surgeons make the stomach smaller, usually through gastric bypass or by inserting a band, so that patients feel fuller sooner and eat less as a result.
The operation, which costs up to £15,000, requires a short stay in hospital. It has been speculated that semaglutide-based anti-obesity drugs, which mimic the effects of a hormone called GLP-1 that tells the brain that the stomach is full, could reduce the need for gastric operations.
However, the latest study, by scientists at Hasharon Hospital in Israel, suggests that surgery carries greater long-term benefits.
They followed more than 6,000 obese patients, average age 51, for six years and found that those who underwent surgery were 62 percent less likely to die from obesity-related health problems than those treated with Ozempic-style injections.
The researchers said the results, published in the journal JAMA Open Network, reflect the fact that weight lost through surgery was greater than with drugs.
Obese patients lost an average of 31 percent of their body weight with surgery, while those taking GLP-1 inhibitor drugs – which stop working if not taken for life – lost only 12.8 percent.
“The risk of death decreases when patients lose more than 10 to 15 per cent of their body weight,” says Professor Alex Miras, a consultant endocrinologist at Imperial College London.
“But newer GLP-1 drugs help patients lose more, so 10 years later they may be as effective as surgery.”
