Longevity science

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The short-term benefits of weight loss surgery are well known in severely obese people, but a new study finds that improvements in diabetes and blood pressure may hold up for years after the procedures.

At six-year patient follow-ups, three quarters of people who'd undergone gastric bypass surgery had lost at least 20 percent of their pre-surgery weight and kept it off, researchers found.

Vaccines and antibiotics may someday join caloric restriction or bariatric surgery as a way to regulate weight gain, according to a new study focused on the interactions between diet, the bacteria that live in the bowel, and the immune system.

Researchers examined the complicated relationship between the immune system, gut bacteria, digestion and obesity. They showed how weight gain requires not just caloric overload but also a delicate, adjustable -- and transmissible -- interplay between intestinal microbes and the immune response.