Probiotics help gastric-bypass patients lose weight more quickly, Stanford study show

[The Journey Messenger]

New research from the Stanford University School of Medicine and Stanford Hospital & Clinics suggests that the use of a dietary supplement after Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery can help obese patients to more quickly lose weight and to avoid deficiency of a critical B vitamin.In a study published in the July issue of the Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery, John Morton, MD, associate professor of surgery at the medical school, showed that patients who take probiotics after the gastric-bypass procedure tend to shed more pounds than those who don?t take the supplements. Probiotics are the so-called ?good? bacteria found in yogurt as well as in over-the-counter dietary supplements that help in the digestion of food.?Surprisingly, the probiotic group attained a significantly greater percent of excess weight loss than that of control group,? said Morton, who wrote the paper with lead author Gavitt Woodard, a third-year medical student, and five other medical students at the Surgery Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation in Stanford?s Department of Surgery. Morton has performed more than 1,000 of these bypasses at Stanford Hospital & Clinics.


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Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass A type of gastric bypass procedure which combines restrictive and malabsorption techniques - meaning, it reduces the amount of food a patient can comfortably eat (restriction), and also reduces the amount of calories that can be digested in the small intestine (malabsorption). This combination of bariatric methods leads to greater weight loss and the roux-en-y procedure is seen as one of the best ways to treat clinically severe obesity. See WLS Videos for animated surgery technique.

Obesity Obesity results from the excessive accumulation of fat that exceeds the body's skeletal and physical standards. Obesity has been defined as a weight more than 20% above what is considered normal according to standard age, height, and weight tables, or by a complex formula known as the body mass index. According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), an increase in 20 percent or more above your ideal body weight is the point at which excess weight becomes a health risk. CLICK HERE TO OPEN THE JOURNEY BMI CALCULATOR!