The New York Times - Health
Having gastric bypass surgery has a ripple effect that causes family members to lose weight, eat better and exercise more, a new study shows.
The research found that spouses, relatives and even the children of patients who underwent the procedure dropped significant amounts of weight, doubled their activity levels and had other improvements that were still evident a year after the surgery. The findings suggest that doctors who perform gastric bypass operations may want to look at the procedure as a way to bring about change in entire families in need of help with their weight and exercise habits, said Dr. John Morton, the director of bariatric surgery at the Stanford School of Medicine and an author of the study, which appeared in The Archives of Surgery.
“If you have a committed and involved family,” he said, “you’re going to have better outcomes for the patient, and also by the same token, the family members can have a collateral benefit.”
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“Obesity is a family disease,” he said, “and we do need to treat everyone involved and start thinking about bariatric surgery as a platform for change.”
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