Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Monday 20 May 2019
Obesity surgery benefits may AP EXPLAINS:

be bigger for teens than adults

By MARILYNN MARCHIONE
AP Chief Medical Writer
Teens who have obesity sur-
gery lose as much weight
as those who have the op-
eration as adults and are
more likely to have it resolve
other health problems such
as diabetes and high blood
pressure, a study finds.
The results suggest there's a
benefit from not waiting to
address obesity. Research- In this March 30, 2005 file photo, an Iranian security official in
protective clothing walks through part of the Uranium Conver-
ers say longer study is still sion Facility just outside the Iranian city of Isfahan.
needed to know lifetime ef- Associated Press
fects of this radical surgery
and that it's a personal de- Science of uranium
cision whether and when
to try it.
The study was published enrichment amid
Thursday by the New Eng-
land Journal of Medicine
and presented at the Com- Iran tension
bating Childhood Obesity
conference in Houston. The
National Institutes of Health By MALCOLM RITTER atom of U-235, while go-
paid for it, and some re- AP Science Writer ing from there to 90% purity
searchers consult for mak- NEW YORK (AP) — Iran means removing just four
ers of obesity surgery tools. made a veiled threat this more per atom of U-235,
The damaging effects of week to enrich uranium he noted. Ninety percent
obesity accumulate, and stocks closer to weapon- is considered weapons-
the risk of developing other grade levels amid rising grade.
diseases and dying prema- tensions in the region. So once one achieves 20%
turely rises the longer some- That would mean going purity on the way to 90%,
one goes. Surgery is usually beyond the level of po- "you're most of the way
reserved for people who In this Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2015 file photo, Miranda Taylor, 20, tency allowed by the 2015 there already," Chyba said.
poses for a portrait outside Christ College of Nursing and Health
can't lose enough weight Science in Cincinnati. nuclear agreement with Iran's Supreme Leader
through other means — Associated Press world powers, which the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei re-
diet, exercise and some- U.S. withdrew from last year. portedly said Tuesday that
times medicines — and are been obese since they though about 2 percent Tehran is threatening to re- achieving 20% "is the most
severely obese. were teens. Five years af- of each group died, two sume higher enrichment on difficult part ... The next
Researchers led by Dr. ter their operations, both of the teens did so from July 7 if no new agreement steps are easier than this
Thomas Inge at the Univer- groups had lost 26% to 29% drug overdoses, suggesting is reached to provide relief step." Iran is not known
sity of Colorado wanted of their weight. substance abuse and self- from U.S. sanctions. to have enriched beyond
to know whether it's bet- Diabetes went into remis- harm may be a concern. Enriching a supply of ura- 20% previously.
ter or safer to have it in sion in 86% of teens and Overall, the results are con- nium means boosting its Matthew Bunn at Harvard's
mid-life, the most common 53% of adults who had that sistent with an earlier study concentration of the type John F. Kennedy School of
time now, or sooner before disease before their op- comparing teens and of uranium that can power Government said the same
many of those other health erations; high blood pres- adults, Ted Adams of the a nuclear reaction. That centrifuge technology
problems appear or do sure did the same in 68% University of Utah in Salt type, or isotope, is called used to reach 3.67% can
much harm. of teens and 41% of adults. Lake City wrote in a com- U-235. Enrichment basically be used to drive enrich-
They compared results Some side effects were mentary in the journal. means stripping away at- ment to 90%.
from two studies of gastric more common in teens, "Almost 6% of adolescents oms of another isotope, Once Tehran had enough
bypass surgery, which cre- and they were twice as in the United States are se- called U-238. uranium enriched to 20%,
ates a much smaller stom- likely to need a second op- verely obese, and bariat- When uranium is mined, it would only be weeks
ach pouch, in 161 teens eration. ric surgery is now the only it typically has about 140 away from a bomb if it de-
and 396 adults who had One troubling finding: Al- successful, long-term treat- atoms of this unwanted cided to build one, he said.
ment option" for them, he isotope for every atom of A bomb's worth of highly
wrote. U-235, notes Christopher enriched uranium "could
Most obese teens stay Chyba of Princeton Univer- be the size of a very large
obese as adults, and sity. Refining it to a purity grapefruit," Bunn said.
adults who were obese as of 3.67%, the level now al- Iran says it has never
teens have worse health lowed by the nuclear deal, sought nuclear weapons.
than people who started means removing 114 un- But Western officials and
to weigh too much at an wanted atoms of U-238 for experts say that prior to the
older age, but that doesn't every atom of U-235. nuclear deal, Iran had a
mean it's the right choice Boosting its purity to 20% breakout capability of just
to have surgery earlier than means removing 22 more a few months if it were to
later, he warned.q unwanted isotopes per decide to build a bomb.q