Thanks to growing awareness of a national obesity epidemic, and the lowering of complication rates since its introduction in the 1960s, gastric bypass procedures have become an increasingly popular treatment option for the morbidly obese. At least 200,000 people signed up last year in the U.S. alone.
But new evidence shows that these surgeries aren’t just shrinking stomachs: they’re rewiring patient’s brains. Samantha Murphy is a freelance science journalist whose recent article for New Scientist details her own experience with gastric bypass, and reveals what new research is saying about how the procedures actually work.
