Gastric bypass surgery changes how the brain responds to food,
reducing not only hunger but also the drive to eat for pleasure, a
study has found.
The research helps to explain why gastric bypass patients lose
more weight over the long term than those who undergo a gastric
band operation.
Weight loss surgery is the most effective treatment for obesity
and its associated health problems. Over 20 years, people who
undergo gastric bypass surgery lose on average 25 per cent of their
body weight, compared with 14 per cent for those who have a gastric
band.
The gastric bypass procedure re-routes the digestive system past
most of the stomach so that undigested food gets to the intestine
much quicker, while a gastric band physically restricts the size of
the stomach so individuals feel full.
Previous studies in animals and humans have shown that those who
undergo a gastric bypass tend to shift away from eating high-fat
and sweet foods. However the effect of different types of weight
loss surgery on the brain that may be responsible for changes in
food preference has not been explored until now.
Using a scanning technique called functional magnetic resonance
imaging (fMRI), which measures brain activity by detecting changes
in blood oxygen levels and flow, scientists studied 61 men and
women who had lost weight from either a gastric bypass or gastric
band surgery carried out on average eight to nine months
previously, as well as a control group of unoperated participants.
These three groups were of similar body weight.
They found marked differences in the brain's response to food in
patients after gastric bypass, compared to gastric band surgery.
Patients who had gastric bypass had less activity in the brain's
reward regions when shown pictures of food compared with those who
had gastric banding.
Patients after gastric bypass also rated high-calorie foods as
less appealing to look at and less pleasant to eat, had healthier
eating habits and ate less fat in their diet than patients after
gastric banding or the unoperated control group. Both the gastric
bypass and banding patients had similarly reduced hunger compared
with the unoperated group, and the findings were not explained by
differences in psychological traits between the surgical
groups.
The researchers did not find conclusive evidence of what caused
these changes, but they did observe several differences in the
patients' metabolism that could play a role. Levels of gut hormones
called GLP-1 and PYY that make us feel full after a meal were
higher in the gastric bypass group, as were levels of bile salts,
which play a role in digestion.
Patients after gastric bypass also reported more intestinal
discomfort and nausea after eating foods high in fat and sugar in
the early months after the surgery than patients after banding,
which may also be influencing what foods they want to eat. Further
work by the researchers will focus on which of these factors may be
influencing the brain's response to food following bypass
surgery.
Dr Tony Goldstone from the MRC Clinical Sciences Centre at
Imperial College London, who led the study, said: "It is well
established that patients after gastric bypass lose more weight
than after gastric band and we think this is because of the
different physical changes made to the gut during surgery, which
somehow have an effect on the drive to eat for pleasure. Both
procedures reduce appetite and have health benefits including
long-term weight loss and improvement or even complete resolution
of type 2 diabetes. However, gastric bypass surgery appears to be
more effective for weight loss and has a more profound effect on
the way in which the brain responds to food.
"These findings emphasise that different bariatric procedures
work in different ways to influence eating behaviour. This may have
important implications for the way we treat patients with obesity
and could help pave the way for a more personalised approach when
deciding on the choice of bariatric procedure by taking the impact
on food preferences and cravings into account."
The paper, Obese patients after gastric bypass surgery have lower
brain-hedonic responses to food than after gastric banding, is
published in Gut.