Dr. Mercola June 19 2004 875 views
Some "experts" claimed that weight-loss surgery might be the better option over diet, exercise or medication for people dealing with a weight-related condition. Research has shown that a growing number of people have been choosing weight-loss surgery as the way to conquer their obesity.
The weight loss surgery works by limiting the amount of food that one could eat by shrinking the stomach size with bands, staples or bypassing a portion of the organ.
Each year nearly 50,000 weight-loss operations are done in Europe and even a higher number are performed in the United States.
Individuals that qualify for the surgery have to be diagnosed as being grossly overweight, otherwise known as morbidly obese. Other qualifiers include people who come close to fitting the morbidly obese standard and have a chronic health condition associated with obesity such as high blood pressure or diabetes.
The criteria used to determine if someone is morbidly obese is measuring the body mass index (BMI), which is a measurement of fat distribution. If the number exceeds 40, which equates to 100 pounds or 50 kg overweight, the person is considered morbidly obese.
A healthy BMI range would be 25 and under.
Statistics also showed that in the United States, gastric bypass surgery has become one of the most common surgeries for weight-related problems.
Yahoo! News May 29, 2004
Nearly 50,000 weight-loss operations have been performed each year in Europe.
Surgeons performed 63,100 weight-loss operations in the United States in 2002, which is up from 28,800 in 1999.
Non-surgical treatment fails in maybe 80 percent of patients while surgical treatment is successful in around 75 percent.
Now if those numbers were true and I were obese, I would certainly opt for the surgery, but the truth of the matter is that the non-surgical treatment that fails is the traditional one that is virtually 100-percent clueless about the basics that are required for effective weight control, which are:
Optimized diet low in grains and sugars and optimized for one's metabolic type
Aggressive cardiovascular exercise
Most importantly, an effective tool that addresses the emotional short circuiting that sabotages nearly everyone who is seeking to lose weight
Also, I would seriously question the definition of "success" of the surgery as they conveniently chose not to include the relatively common complications of this surgery that leave many in misery.
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