Riyadh Metro to begin partial operations next Wednesday: Report    Al Okhdood halts Al Shabab's winning streak with a 1-1 draw in Saudi Pro League    Mahrez leads Al Ahli to victory over Al Fayha in Saudi Pro League    Al Qadsiah hands Al Nassr their first defeat in the Saudi Pro League    Saudi musical marvels takes center stage in Tokyo's iconic opera hall    Downing Street indicates Netanyahu faces arrest if he enters UK    London's Gatwick airport reopens terminal after bomb scare evacuation    Slovak president meets Saudi delegation to bolster trade and investment ties    Civil Defense warns of thunderstorms across Saudi Arabia until Tuesday    Saudi Arabia, Japan strengthen cultural collaboration with new MoU    Saudi defense minister meets with Swedish state secretary    Navigating healthcare's future: Solutions for a sustainable system    Al Khaleej qualifies for Asian Men's Club League Handball Championship final    Sixth foreign tourist dies of suspected methanol poisoning in Laos    Katy Perry v Katie Perry: Singer wins right to use name in Australia    Trump picks Pam Bondi as attorney general after Matt Gaetz withdraws    Al-Jasser: Saudi Arabia to expand rail network to over 8,000 km    OMODA&JAECOO: Unstoppable global cumulative sales over 360,000 units    Sitting too much linked to heart disease –– even if you work out    Denmark's Victoria Kjær Theilvig wins Miss Universe 2024    Order vs. Morality: Lessons from New York's 1977 Blackout    India puts blockbuster Pakistani film on hold    The Vikings and the Islamic world    Filipino pilgrim's incredible evolution from an enemy of Islam to its staunch advocate    Exotic Taif Roses Simulation Performed at Taif Rose Festival    Asian shares mixed Tuesday    Weather Forecast for Tuesday    Saudi Tourism Authority Participates in Arabian Travel Market Exhibition in Dubai    Minister of Industry Announces 50 Investment Opportunities Worth over SAR 96 Billion in Machinery, Equipment Sector    HRH Crown Prince Offers Condolences to Crown Prince of Kuwait on Death of Sheikh Fawaz Salman Abdullah Al-Ali Al-Malek Al-Sabah    HRH Crown Prince Congratulates Santiago Peña on Winning Presidential Election in Paraguay    SDAIA Launches 1st Phase of 'Elevate Program' to Train 1,000 Women on Data, AI    41 Saudi Citizens and 171 Others from Brotherly and Friendly Countries Arrive in Saudi Arabia from Sudan    Saudi Arabia Hosts 1st Meeting of Arab Authorities Controlling Medicines    General Directorate of Narcotics Control Foils Attempt to Smuggle over 5 Million Amphetamine Pills    NAVI Javelins Crowned as Champions of Women's Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) Competitions    Saudi Karate Team Wins Four Medals in World Youth League Championship    Third Edition of FIFA Forward Program Kicks off in Riyadh    Evacuated from Sudan, 187 Nationals from Several Countries Arrive in Jeddah    SPA Documents Thajjud Prayer at Prophet's Mosque in Madinah    SFDA Recommends to Test Blood Sugar at Home Two or Three Hours after Meals    SFDA Offers Various Recommendations for Safe Food Frying    SFDA Provides Five Tips for Using Home Blood Pressure Monitor    SFDA: Instant Soup Contains Large Amounts of Salt    Mawani: New shipping service to connect Jubail Commercial Port to 11 global ports    Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Delivers Speech to Pilgrims, Citizens, Residents and Muslims around the World    Sheikh Al-Issa in Arafah's Sermon: Allaah Blessed You by Making It Easy for You to Carry out This Obligation. Thus, Ensure Following the Guidance of Your Prophet    Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques addresses citizens and all Muslims on the occasion of the Holy month of Ramadan    







Thank you for reporting!
This image will be automatically disabled when it gets reported by several people.



Obesity surgery thins bones, maybe a bit too much?
By Lauran Neergaard
Published in The Saudi Gazette on 20 - 06 - 2009

It isn't just the thunder thighs that shrink after obesity surgery. Melting fat somehow thins bones, too.
Doctors don't yet know how likely patients' bones are to thin enough to break in the years after surgery.
But one of the first attempts to tell suggests they might have twice the average person's risk, and be even more likely to break a hand or foot.
The Mayo Clinic's finding is surprising, and further research is under way to see if the link is real. But with bariatric surgery booming and even teenagers in their key bone-building years increasingly trying it, specialists say uncovering long-term side effects and how to counter them takes on new urgency.
Simply popping today's doses of calcium supplements may not be enough.
“These procedures are now being sold as a panacea,” Dr. Shonni Joy Silverberg of Columbia University told last week's annual meeting of The Endocrine Society, where the fat-and-bone relationship took center stage. “It is of heightened importance to find the answers to these questions.”
Here's the irony: Obesity actually is considered protective against bone-weakening osteoporosis, possibly the only positive thing you'll ever hear a doctor say about too much fat.
“They're starting better than most of us,” cautions Mayo bone-metabolism expert Dr. Jackie Clowes. So the big question is whether they really end up with worse bones, or just go through a transition period as their bones adjust to their new body size.
Dieting alone doesn't make enough of a dent to fend off rampant diabetes and other health problems, so surgery is fast becoming the preferred treatment — from the stomach stapling called gastric bypass to less invasive stomach banding. Patients tend to lose between 15 percent and 25 percent of their original weight, and diabetes dramatically improves.
But doctors have long noted that the radical weight loss can speed bone turnover until the breakdown of old bone outpaces the formation of new bone. Silverberg cites recent studies showing that a year after gastric bypass, adults' hip density drops as much as 10 percent, raising concern about a common fracture site of old age. (Stomach banding causes less thinning because it doesn't alter nutrient absorption as much.)
No one knows if teen bones react similarly, but it's an important issue because almost half of peak bone mass develops during adolescence. To see if such changes translate into fractures, the Mayo team is comparing the medical records of nearly 300 adults who've had bariatric surgery with similarly aged Minnesotans who haven't.
A quarter of the 142 surgery recipients studied so far experienced at least one fracture in the following years, Mayo's Dr. Elizabeth Haglind told the endocrinology meeting. Six years post-surgery, that group had twice the average risk. But in a puzzling finding, the surgery recipients had even more hand and foot fractures than their Minnesota neighbors, three times the risk.
Those fractures aren't usually connected to osteoporosis. Did the once-obese merely start exercising and just fall down more? Clowes doubts it.
“I was shocked” at the numbers, says Dr. Scott Shikora, president of the bariatric surgeons group, who says he hasn't seen a significant fracture problem in his own practice.
Surgeons routinely tell patients to take some extra calcium and vitamin D. Shikora estimates about half follow that advice, and other research suggests higher doses may be needed anyway as the obese tend to start out deficient in vitamin D. A key next step will be to compare the patients who fracture with people of the same weight to see if their bone mass just had to adjust – or if something about surgery alters the complex soup of hormones and other factors that keep bones strong, thus requiring more than extra calcium.
Clowes' advice for now: Don't skip checkups, where doctors monitor bone health, and aggressively treat nutrient deficiencies.


Clic here to read the story from its source.