The headline is an overstatement. There is some evidence that over the long term bariatric surgery is associated with better outcomes than pharmaceutical obesity treatments. But having both options is clearly better than the status quo ante.
The article doesn't really explore the reasons why for this quote:
> Our concern with the current state of obesity treatment is that the marketing of GLP-1 medications and their massive popularity is overshadowing scientific evidence supporting metabolic and bariatric surgery as the most efficacious therapy for obesity,” lead study author Tyler Cohn, a surgeon and associate professor at Loyola University Medical Center, told Gizmodo.
That seems surprising for me, my Intution says surely surgery would be a last resut before trying ozempic?
> That seems surprising for me, my Intution says surely surgery would be a last resut before trying ozempic?
> lead study author Tyler Cohn, a surgeon
If I asked a surgeon whether ozempic or bariatric surgery was a better option for treating obesity, I’d expect them to recommend surgery. If you ask a doctor that prescribes ozempic, I’d expect them to recommend ozempic.
I used to do patient care in this area, pre GLP-1, and am extremely glad to see these medications taking off and displacing surgery.
I wouldn't call the surgical interventions a scam, but their risks have routinely been understated and as a result the arguments for them overstated.
Something like GLP-1 medication is exactly what was needed. The whole area needed to move to something more like how depression is treated, with psychological behavioral therapy and medication being frontline, and surgery only being reserved for rare very high risk cases of last resort.
The headline is an overstatement. There is some evidence that over the long term bariatric surgery is associated with better outcomes than pharmaceutical obesity treatments. But having both options is clearly better than the status quo ante.
The article doesn't really explore the reasons why for this quote:
> Our concern with the current state of obesity treatment is that the marketing of GLP-1 medications and their massive popularity is overshadowing scientific evidence supporting metabolic and bariatric surgery as the most efficacious therapy for obesity,” lead study author Tyler Cohn, a surgeon and associate professor at Loyola University Medical Center, told Gizmodo.
That seems surprising for me, my Intution says surely surgery would be a last resut before trying ozempic?
> That seems surprising for me, my Intution says surely surgery would be a last resut before trying ozempic?
> lead study author Tyler Cohn, a surgeon
If I asked a surgeon whether ozempic or bariatric surgery was a better option for treating obesity, I’d expect them to recommend surgery. If you ask a doctor that prescribes ozempic, I’d expect them to recommend ozempic.
I would say the other way around, that GLP-1 should be tried before surgery.
Sorry I reread my comment and I had a key typo. Agreed that's what I meant.
I used to do patient care in this area, pre GLP-1, and am extremely glad to see these medications taking off and displacing surgery.
I wouldn't call the surgical interventions a scam, but their risks have routinely been understated and as a result the arguments for them overstated.
Something like GLP-1 medication is exactly what was needed. The whole area needed to move to something more like how depression is treated, with psychological behavioral therapy and medication being frontline, and surgery only being reserved for rare very high risk cases of last resort.