Could surgical weight loss make your cells younger?
Researchers looked at the genetic data of 51 patients both before and after they went through the gastric bypass surgery, an American Society for Metabolic & Bariatric surgery news release reported.
"Gastric bypass and other weight-loss surgeries make changes to your digestive system to help you lose weight by limiting how much you can eat or by reducing the absorption of nutrients, or both," MayoClinic reported.
The study subjects were 76.5 percent female and had an average age of 49 and Body Mass Index of 44.3, the news release reported. The patients lost about 71 percent of their excess body weight within 12 months of surgery, and reduced inflammation by about 60 percent; the patients' fasting insulin also declined by about four times during the study.
These findings were not surprising, but researchers looked at the length of each patients' telomeres both before and after surgery.
"Telomeres are genetic biomarkers that play an important role in cellular aging and in the development of disease. As people age or have chronic disease, their telomeres become shorter," the news release reported.
The team noticed that after the surgery, many of the patients' telomeres actually got longer.
"Obesity has an adverse effect on health, causes pre-mature aging and reduces life expectancy. This is the first study to show that surgical weight loss may be able to reverse the effects," study co-author John M. Morton, MD, Chief of Bariatric Surgery at Stanford University Medical Center and President-Elect of the ASMBS, said. "If your telomeres get longer, you're likely to reverse the effects of aging and have a lower risk of developing a wide range of age-related diseases such as type 2 diabetes, heart and respiratory diseases, and certain types of cancer."
Those who had an increase in "good cholesterol" after the surgery were more likely to see an increased telomere length.
