Obesity surgery may lower diabetics’ heart attack risk

SEATTLE (AP) – New research suggests obesity surgery may dramatically lower the danger of heart attacks and strokes in people with diabetes. The study reinforces evidence that the benefits of stomach-shrinking surgery extend beyond weight loss.

Researchers tracked about 20,000 severely obese patients with Type 2 diabetes. Those who had surgery had fewer heart attacks and strokes than those who took diabetes medicines or insulin.

More than 30 million Americans have diabetes, mostly Type 2 where the body loses the ability to produce or use insulin to turn food into energy.

Study co-author Dr. David Arterburn of Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute in Seattle says doctors should discuss weight loss surgery more often with people who have diabetes.

The paper was published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.