Obese middle-aged men and women who undergo bariatric surgery for weight loss may have reduced their risk of death by 50 per cent than those tackling their weight through diet and behaviour alone, finds a study. Weight loss is achieved by reducing the size of the stomach with a gastric band or through removal of a portion of the stomach (sleeve gastrectomy or biliopancreatic diversion with duodenal switch) or by resecting and re-routing the small intestine to a small stomach pouch or (Roux-en-Y gastric bypass(RYGB)surgery). ...

Polish abortion rights proponents, most of them women, are marching in Warsaw and elsewhere in Poland to express their opposition to a proposal in parliament to further tighten the country’s already restrictive abortion law. Hundreds took part in a march in Warsaw on Wednesday but it wasn’t immediately clear how many took place in other cities. The turnout appeared far smaller than similar marches which mobilized huge crowds in 2016. The march, organized by a group known as the Women’s Strike, comes after lawmakers voted recently to refuse to consider a proposal to liberalize the abortion law and moved forward with a separate proposal to tighten the law. Abortion is illegal in most cases in heavily Catholic Poland, and some conservative lawmakers are seeking to restrict it further. ...