NOT Burning the Fat:
Gastric Bypass Surgery

While much of the world literally starves to death, western man has an embarrassment of riches: Rich food, a rich, sedentary lifestyle and a rich selection of really greasy and fattening food to choose from. Combine that with a serious lack of self control and you have a recipe for one of the worse epidemics of our times.

A sobering statistic: 30% of Americans are considered obese – not fat or overweight, mind you - obese. This is the type of fatness that can only come from a lifetime of overeating and not enough exercise. Not surprising in the U.S. where groups of elementary school students routinely recognize Ronald McDonald more often than Jesus Christ or George Washington.

Admittedly, there are folks with a genetic disposition for this, but only one out of a hundred can say they have the rare MC4R gene thought to be responsible for obesity. Fifty years ago, rates of obesity were negligible. Today, more than a billion people are considered overweight worldwide.

Western medicine - while talking about prevention - has tended to focus on surgery to relieve the problem. Why? Because doctors get paid to do procedures, not give advice like “stop downing 2 liters of Coke a day and hit the treadmill.”

Liposuction, tummy tucks and the like have been the staple bread winners for cosmetic surgeons for years. These doctors even have their own popular TV shows and make more money than God.

Now, envious surgeons from other fields have decided they want to get in on the gold rush and have developed a controversial procedure called the gastric bypass. And while they claim it’s only for the worse cases, you can bet there are plenty of doctors who will do one for anyone who can afford it.

In principal, it sounds good. A surgeon uses one of the various types of procedures – probably the Roux-en-Y, since it’s the most popular - to reduce the size of your stomach and bypass much of your large intestine. Afterwards, this makes you feel full quickly since your stomach size is much smaller and prevents your body form absorbing as many calories from the food you eat by bypassing the large intestine.

Weight loss from this procedure is truly dramatic: patients typically lose around 10lbs per month until they reach a plateau around 12 to 24 months.

Unfortunately, the side effects can be devastating – even deadly. Medical professionals say only 1.5% die from the surgery – small comfort for the victims. Others say the death rate may be as high as one in fifty for inexperienced surgeons.*

Aside from dying, you may experience:

Note also that this procedure is relatively new and the long-term side effects are still being tallied.

Oh - and here’s the real kicker:

The surgery is not a solution in and of itself. While it can train you to eat smaller quantities and feel full more quickly, you still have to do much of the work. To achieve weight loss and avoid complications from the procedure, you must exercise and eat properly -- according to important, healthy guidelines that your doctor and nutritionist will teach you.

Taken from Medline.com

Eat and exercise properly…. hmm… you still have to do much of the work … hmmm. Wonder why they don’t just try that first? How is it that the population gets into this state in the first place? It not as if people just wake up one morning, look in the mirror and find a 300lb. hippo standing there, is it?

No, it takes real dedication and serious neglect to be obese. Where are the family and friends, co-workers and doctors during this whole process? Getting super fat themselves, from the looks of the statistics.

Here’s another fun fact:

“…often the primary causes of obesity are emotional and psychological. Gastric bypass surgery will not fix these emotional and psychological problems. In fact, if these issues are not dealt with prior to or along with the surgery, the patient may be more likely to experience serious complications.”

Taken from Gastric Bypass Surgery - Will Insurance Cover the Cost?
- an article about insurance coverage for the procedure.

With this in mind, in would make sense to start doing something about fat today – not wait until you’re a candidate for a dangerous $25,000 surgery. Whether it be psychological counseling or safe, healthy exercise and diet, it would be cheaper and far more effective to do this now, not later when airlines start charging you for two seats, you get automatically “supersized” in the fast food joints and the big & fat clothing stores know you on a first name basis.

If you have obese friends, you owe it to them to tell them the facts.

Obesity is one hundred percent curable and avoidable – but only for those who accept that they are the ones in control – not Ronald McDonald.

Check this link to see a medical description for the various different types of gastric bypass procedures: Gastric Bypass

*See this sad article for more details about the 1 in 50 death rate:
Gastric Bypass Surgery Gone Bad

Top