Health Buzz: Weight-Loss Surgery Health Perks and Other News

Women Who Undergo Weight-Loss Surgery May Reduce Cancer Risk

Women who have their stomachs stapled to lose weight may lower their risk of developing cancer, the Associated Press reports. In men, however, the surgery does not seem to have any effect on cancer risk. Swedish researchers compared 2,010 obese men and women who got stomach-stapling surgery to 2,037 obese men and women who did not. They found women who had the surgery reduced their cancer risk by about 40 percent. Only 79 women of the surgery group developed cancer, whereas 130 women did in the nonsurgery group. Thirty-eight men in the surgery group got cancer compared with 39 in the nonsurgery group, according to the AP. A report from BBC News suggests weight-loss surgery may have some effect on hormones, which are linked to many common cancers in women. Study findings appear in today's online issue of the Lance t Oncology.

New research suggests being obese can significantly increase a woman's risk of endometrial cancer and heart failure. Obesity, when combined with diabetes and heart disease, may also lead to dementia. Consider these diets that promote health and 7 tips to help you shed pounds.

3 Ways to Make Sure Abnormal Test Results Aren't Missed

A study published in Monday's Archives of Internal Medicine found that 7 percent of abnormal test results aren't reported to patients. That can lead to dangerous assumptions if a doctor tells a patient not to expect a call unless there's an abnormality, U.S. News's Deborah Kotz reports. Although the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality tells doctors to inform patients of all test results, including reassuring ones, nearly one third of the practices surveyed in the study didn't do so.

"You can't assume that no news is good news," stresses study author Lawrence Casalino, an associate professor of public health at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City. Practices that use "no news is good news" policies and have no good system in place for managing test results—like having the physician sign off on all results—are more likely to neglect to inform patients about negative results, Kotz writes. U.S. News brings you a list of 3 ways to make sure you know your test results, which include switching doctors if you notice signs the office is not well managed.

Earlier this month, a review of records from two separate hospitals found that 14 percent of in-hospital pages to doctors were sent to the wrong on-call physician.

Obese Youth Have Greater Health Risks

Being overweight or obese in your teens and early adulthood may put you at greater risk for developing pancreatic cancer, according to a study published in today's Journal of the American Medical Association. Researchers also found that pancreatic cancer patients who had been overweight or obese between the ages of 20 and 49 tended to develop pancreatic cancer two to six years before patients of normal weight.

In May, U.S. News's Nancy Shute reported on what's causing the childhood obesity epidemic. Scientists showed that today's children eat about 350 calories a day more than did kids in the 1970s, the equivalent of a small serving of french fries and a nondiet soda. Unlike adults, who also eat more, they're not compensating with more exercise, researchers found. Shute previously wrote about childhood obesity and metabolic syndrome, a group of interrelated risk factors for heart disease, such as high blood sugar and high triglycerides. Obesity is the main culprit causing metabolic syndrome, she wrote. Getting kids to exercise and eat healthfully may help prevent it.

—Megan Johnson

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