Dr. Mercola September 09 2006 2,122 views
Intestinal surgery can result in your body becoming unable to properly absorb vitamin A.
This can lead to eye problems that can start many years after the surgery. Vitamin A deficiency can result in dry eye, softening of the cornea, damage to the retina, and night blindness.
The link was discovered when the records of four patients with ocular problems were reviewed. One patient developed symptoms within months of gastric bypass surgery, but the other three did not experience any symptoms until at least 18 years after surgery.
Their complaints included night blindness, decreased vision in one eye, and decreased vision in both eyes. Lab tests confirmed vitamin A deficiency in all four cases.
There have also been other reports that a number of patients have experienced severe visual complications, including blindness, following gastric bypass surgery.
As the number of gastric bypass procedures have surged, so have reports about all the dangerous side effects. The long-term success rate of gastric bypass surgery borders on 10 percent, and it is fraught with possible complications including:
And it also carries a good chance of simply killing you outright.
I'm not surprised in the least by this latest complication, especially considering many patients don't get enough vitamin A to being with, so any decrease can make them very prone to problems.
A reminder: Your best sources of vitamin A are natural ones, including:
As I've said before, when you use the wrong tool to "cure" any medical condition -- especially when it's a lifestyle-related medical concern like obesity -- you're virtually guaranteed to have problems. Of course, that hasn't stopped people, like the former half-ton man, from doing it anyway.
People tend to forget that they didn't gain all those extra pounds in a short time, and it will take considerably longer to lose it safely and smartly.
Gastric bypasses and balloon procedures provide permanent and very problematic solutions to a condition that can be more safely treated by making better lifestyle decisions. If you really want to treat obesity in a healthy way:
I had Roux-en-Y GB surgery 3 years ago. I now have probable Nesidioblastosis and am facing a pancreatectomy. I have become disabled to the point that I lost my job and can no longer function. I am basically confined to my bedroom as I am afraid to leave home. My blood sugar drops rapidly and I experience seizures frequently. It is such a rare and controversial condition that no one really knows how to treat it. I wonder sometimes if I will live through this. If someone had told me prior to my surgery that this was a risk, I would not have done it. If you are considering GB surgery, please reconsider. It is not worth it.