Family members can lose more weight by getting bariatric surgery at the same time

When a patient undergoes gastric bypass with a family member, both are likely to lose more weight than a single patient undergoing the surgery.

The American Society for Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery held their annual meeting, where a New Jersey researcher reported his findings. A clinical professor of surgery at The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Dr. Gus Slotman said that the support system that families can provide, make good results even better. This support is very important in the first year after surgery, since patients have to change their lifestyle and eating habits.

The findings are based on a study that compared patients who had weight loss surgery along with a family member to those patients who had the surgery alone. The intervals for the weigh-ins were six months, one year, and two years. Slotman found that patients having the surgery with a sibling lost 86% of their excess weight. The patients who did it alone lost 60%.

Along with losing more weight, other benefits include reduction of diabetes and high blood pressure.
Those patients who had the surgery with a family member saw 65% of their diabetes resolved compared to 31% of the patients who had the surgery by themselves. High blood pressure was reduced to normal in 60% of patients who had surgery with another member of the family. It went down in only 33% in the single patients.

The findings did not surprise Dr. Amir Mehran, director of bariatric surgery at The University of California. Obesity runs in families, if only one member has surgery, intentionally or not, other family members can sabotage the patient’s attempt at weight loss.