Stomach stapling and other obesity treatments not only give obese people lasting weight loss, but also mean longer lives for the larger among us, according to a new study.

According to the Washington Post, research, involving 20,000 obese people in the United States and Sweden, found those who underwent surgery had about a 30 to 40 percent lower risk of dying over the next seven to 10 years compared with those who went without the operations.

The question as to whether intentional weight loss improves life span has been answered," wrote George Bray of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge in a commentary accompanying the studies in Thursday's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. "The answer appears to be a resounding yes."

Now, if I can just get my insurance to pay for it ...

-- Amanda Barrett, amNY.com