With the prevalence of obesity on the rise and the public awareness from celebrities such as Al Roker and Carnie Wilson, it's no wonder gastric bypass procedures are gaining momentum ... and in a very big way.
According to a study by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the number of desperate Americans who opted for weight-loss surgeries exploded fourfold between 1998 and 2002 -- from 13,386 to 71,733. (Part of this boom is fueled by a 900 percent increase in operations in patients between ages 55-64.)
During that same five-year time span, hospital costs also spiked by more than six-fold to nearly $1 billion a year; the average cost per surgery rose by about 13 percent, from $11,705 to $13,215.
Those costs are likely to go even higher -- only a small fraction of people who are medically eligible for weight-loss surgery (having a body mass index greater than 40, or greater than 35 with serious obesity-related complications) have actually had the procedure.
Unfortunate Findings
The study was based on data from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample, which draws information from 37 states. Other findings include:
Based on the trend of baby boomers opting for gastric bypass surgeries, almost 400,000 Americans between ages 65-69 are medically eligible (thanks to Medicare) to have such procedures. That number could increase to almost 500,000 by 2010!
Future demand for weight-loss surgery could rise even more sharply as safety concerns wane. While mortality rates associated with gastric bypass have fallen, the death rate for men remains three times higher than women.
As the obesity epidemic grows, so does the future use and costs of prescription weight-loss drugs. Some 63 million Americans were eligible via Medicare for these drugs, though a little more than 2 percent were prescribed them.
Health Affairs July 12, 2005, Vol. 24, Issue 4: 1039-1046
Agency For Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) July 12, 2005 (Free Full-Text Article)
Forbes July 12, 2005
There's little doubt that gastric bypass surgery does cause many people to lose weight. The procedure can help severely obese people lose many hundreds of pounds. One man who weighed half a ton lost over 500 pounds.
This is not an insignificant issue, as we are approaching nearly a quarter million people every year in the United States having these procedures performed. The cost for these surgeries is approaching nearly $5 billion.
Folks, this is a ludicrous but very predictable outcome of the fatally flawed conventional disease-care paradigm. Nearly every problem (even ones they create) has a drug or surgical solution.
I recently saw a Chris Rock video and he commented that, before you know it, they will have commercials telling you if you breathe or go to sleep or wake up in the morning, then you need this new drug.
While that may seem extreme, I see very little difference between that and using surgery to "cure" obesity. Being overweight was never, is never and will never be due to a surgical issue.
Instead, this is a medical lifestyle concern, and when you use the wrong tool to "fix" it you are virtually 100 percent guaranteed to have complications. There is no question that the risks far outweigh any potential benefits for those who are considering gastric bypass surgery.
But heck, that can be said for just about any other bypass surgery too. Cardiac bypass surgery is nearly equally ludicrous and should be avoided by virtually everyone. But that is a story for another day.
So if you don't have cardiac bypass surgery, do you take Lipitor to lower you cholesterol? Well, many folks are doing that, as Pfizer profits were up 21 percent last quarter, primarily based on the sales of Lipitor.
Unfortunately, there are no simple surgical or drug-popping solutions to these types of chronic degenerative diseases. We need to take the bull by the horns and address the lifestyle issues that cause these problems, rather than rely on quick-fix technologies that fail miserably at addressing the authentic underlying cause.
Why risk it any other way?
Related Articles:
Are You Willing to Risk Your Life to Shed a Few Pounds? The Deadly Risks of Gastric Bypass A Progress Report on the Half-Ton Man
Are You Willing to Risk Your Life to Shed a Few Pounds?
The Deadly Risks of Gastric Bypass
A Progress Report on the Half-Ton Man
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