Gothenburg, Sweden—A recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that bariatric surgery improves the rate of survival of obese people by 40% within seven to ten years following surgery.

The study compared severely obese gastric bypass patients with severely obese people who did not have surgery and found that the surgery group was 56% less likely to die from heart disease, 60% less likely to die from cancer, and 92% less likely to die from diabetes-related causes. The study included 4,047 obese subjects who were monitored for periods up to 15 years.

This was the first long-term study of this type to be published and was conducted in Sweden at Sahlgrenska University Hospital.

This should be good news to severely obese people who are trying to find a way to lose weight and live longer. Bariatric surgery has been considered by some to be cosmetic in nature. This study supports the surgery’s health benefits.

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