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Response to ‘Regression to the mean, apparent data errors, and biologically extraordinary results’

International Journal of Obesity volume 42, page 951 (2018)Cite this article

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We thank Dr. Smith and colleagues for their careful review of published medical literature. We agree that scientific rigor is of greatest importance. However, we disagree with their review of ‘Changes in Telomere Length 3–5 years after Gastric Bypass Surgery’.1 We believe our findings are free of data errors, are more expected than extraordinary and are sufficient to support our conclusions.

Smith describes our results as ‘extraordinary’, implying they are unusual and unexpected. Given existing published research, we believe it is unreasonable to describe our study as ‘extraordinary’. We are not the first to report telomere lengthening after bariatric surgery. In 2016, Laimer et al.2 reported increases in telomere length (TL) after bariatric surgery. Laimer evaluated changes in 142 bariatric patients and TL increased at 10 years after bariatric surgery. Our study found similar results, but at 3–5 years post surgery. We argue that our results are probable and not extraordinary.

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References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Geisinger Obesity Research Institute, Geisinger, Danville, PA, USA

    R Dershem, X Chu, G C Wood, P Benotti & C D Still

  2. Weis Center for Research, Geisinger, Danville, PA, USA

    R Dershem

  3. Department of Internal Medicine, Geisinger, Danville, PA, USA

    D D Rolston

Authors
  1. R Dershem
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  2. X Chu
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  3. G C Wood
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  4. P Benotti
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  5. C D Still
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  6. D D Rolston
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to G C Wood.

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The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Dershem, R., Chu, X., Wood, G. et al. Response to ‘Regression to the mean, apparent data errors, and biologically extraordinary results’. Int J Obes 42, 951 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2017.300

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