A new study offers some sobering news about weight-loss surgery.
People who undergo a gastric bypass procedure called Roux-en-Y are three times more likely than those in the general population to die of drug- or alcohol-related causes, according to researchers at the University of Pittsburgh.
The reason isn’t clear, but laboratory studies have shown that Roux-en-Y surgery changes the way the body reacts to drugs and alcohol.
“The effect is purely physiological, not psychological,” said Dr. John Morton, chief of bariatric and minimally invasive surgery at Yale School of Medicine, who reviewed the findings. “Gastric bypass surgery removes