A new study from LSU’s Pennington Biomedical Research Center shows that bariatric surgery is not only safe and effective in helping morbidly obese people lose weight, but it’s also effective in improving obesity-related health conditions. Dr. Philip Schauer, who led the study, says the study evaluated 76 patients between the ages of 10 and 25 who underwent bariatric surgery between January 2020 and March 2025, and an average loss of 30% body weight wasn’t the only positive outcome.
“Over 90% had complete remission of diabetes. And for those that had high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol had very much improvement; and those that had severe acid reflux had over 60% improvement,” Schauer noted.
Dr. Schauer says chronic obesity is a disease that begins early in life; and sometimes, surgery may be the one and only viable option in ensuring a patient’s long-term health.
“Lifestyle intervention. Diet, exercise. And now there’s drug therapy. But those approaches are not always effective. So the next clear option would be surgery,” Schauer said.
Schauer says as evidenced by this study, bariatric surgery is becoming a more widely accepted option for younger patients.
“Even the American Academy of Pediatrics now recommends that children, teenagers with severe obesity that are not responding to other treatments, they should really be evaluated for metabolic bariatric surgery,” Schauer explained.