BOOK TO GUIDE YOU ON WEIGHT LOSS SURGERY GASTRIC BYPASS AND BARIATRIC SURGERY THINGS YOU OUGHT TO KNOW

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Millions of people are riding a weight loss roller coaster and they can't get off. Weight loss surgery also called bariatric surgery such as gastric bypass and gastric band is becoming a more common but not routine way of dealing with severe obesity. For many, the endless dieting and shelves of diet books have not payed off in permanent change. I have been reading an excellent book about weight loss surgery called Weight Loss Surgery Is It Right For You? Losing weight and keeping the weight off is absolutely harder for some people than others. Psychology as well as genetics have a role in whether people are fat or thin. But weight loss surgery while more common is not something to be taken lightly. Any surgery can have complications and risks. The decision to have weight loss surgery is one to be made carefully and thoughtfully.



A good place to start if you are thinking about this surgery is the book Weight Loss Surgery by Goldberg, Cowan,Jr. and Marcus. Goldberg is an LCSW who has specialized in eating disorders. Cowan and Marcus are physicians with much experience in bariatric surgery. As they point out in the book, "Weight loss surgery is a serious and complicated procedure that is performed on a high risk population It requires the ongoing involvement of talented and dedicated health care team..This surgery before and after requires demanding skills,continuing education and most of all long haul dedication".












This book is a way to get started. First, they discuss if weight loss surgery is a good choice for you. It is not for people who are just somewhat overweight. They talk about levels of obesity. Next it discusses the emotional and physical qualifications for bariatric surgery. Then they talk about the surgeries. I say surgeries because there are different kinds. Then they look at the important post surgery experience. How will your life change and how will your relationships with others be impacted?
Weight Loss Surgery Is It Right For You, by Goldberg, Cowan and Marcus is published by Square One Publishers.

RISKS REWARDS OF GASTRIC BYPASS SURGERY VERSUS DIETING: IN WEIGHT LOSS SURGERY EXPERIENCE COUNTS

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Often a topic for comedians, weight is not so funny when you are fighting a long battle, dieting with little to show to control excess weight that colors every part of your existence from your health to your social life. Many people have chosen gastric bypass surgery.










A New England Journal of Medicine research article found that gastric bypass surgery is beneficial. "In fact, the benefit is quite dramatic. The authors studied 9,949 patients who had undergone weight loss surgery, and compared them to a control group of 9,628 severely obese individuals who did not have the surgery".




They wrote an article about weight loss, diets and gastric bypass surgery. One is an economist and the other a writer but as they discussed the pros and cons of weight loss surgery and dieting in their New York Times column "The Stomach Surgery Conundrum", the authors of Freakonomics totally neglected to mention this article,one of the most important New England Journal research paper about weight loss surgery and it's consequences.




As the Freakonomics boys do point out when it comes to doing surgery experience counts. You want a doctor who does many bariatric weight loss procedures. "Technological innovations, especially the use of laparoscopic procedures (using a tube that is inserted through an incision in the abdominal wall so it's less invasive) have made for considerable gains in safety and efficacy. While the operation is still dangerous in some circumstances — one study found that for a surgeon’s first 19 bariatric operations, patients were nearly five times as likely to die than patients that the surgeon later operated on — the overall mortality rate is now in the neighborhood of 1 percent.

The editorial in the New England Journal also points out that the lowest surgical mortality is seen among surgeons who have performed more than 50 operations and preferably more than 100 operations.



After gastric bypass surgery there was a significant reduction particularly from diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. However, the rate from causes other than disease was higher in the surgery group than in the control group".

Study Shows Dramatic Health Benefit From Obesity Surgery






Dubner and Levitt also say that "a significant fraction of postbariatric patients acquire new addictions like gambling, smoking, compulsive shopping or alcoholism once they are no longer addicted to eating". In fact, the New England article does say that "Despite reductions in disease-related deaths after gastric bypass surgery, the risk of non–disease-related death, such as accidents and suicides, increased by a factor of 1.58, as compared with that in the control group. Reports reveal that a substantial number of severely obese persons have unrecognized presurgical mood disorders or post-traumatic stress disorder or have been victims of childhood sexual abuse".

After Weight-Loss Surgery, Some Find New Addictions



"Not only do most patients keep off a significant amount of weight but the other medical problems that accompany obesity are also often assuaged. One recent analysis found that 77 percent of bariatric-surgery patients with Type 2 diabetes experienced “complete resolution” of their diabetes after the procedure; the surgery also helps eliminate hypertension and sleep apnea. From an economic standpoint, research suggests that the operation can pay for itself within a few years because a postbariatric patient now requires less medical care and fewer prescriptions. That’s why some insurance companies cover bariatric surgery — as more do, it will likely lead to a further spike in the volume of operations".

Long-Term Mortality after Gastric Bypass Surgery (this is a pdf)

Freakonomics in the Times Magazine: The Stomach-Surgery Conundrum

Freakonomics The Stomach-Surgery Conundrum

Laparoscopic Adjustable Gastric Bandings