A friend who had weight loss surgery is having problems. The stitching on the pouch is apparently tearing and other related problems are happening. She’s in a lot of pain.
ANY time you have surgery, there are risks to consider. Weight Loss Surgery (WLS) is no different. If ANY doctor tells you nothing but how reliable and safe the surgery is, then run … Run … RUN! and find another doctor.
A recent posting relating obesity to cancer interested me in it’s suggestion that weight loss surgery (WLS) might very well contribute to reducing the risk of cancer.
To quote “A recent study by Dr. Nicolas Christou of McGill University suggests that weight loss surgery for obese patients in particular lowered the risk of developing cancer by as much as 80 percent.” His paper was presented to the American Society of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery (the professional organization for Bariatric Surgeons) in June.
He points out that there is a direct relationship between morbid obesity and cancer that WLS reduces.
I looked up Dr. Christou who specializes in laparoscopic weight loss surgery and has an impressive set of credentials and publications. If you can’t control your weight with diet, this is certainly something you should consider. The risks are still high and the necessity to drastically change your lifestyle is still there, but it may extend your life.
I’ve spent time working for companies on the periphery of the weight loss surgery industry. I know how dangerous this can be. A pretty good case for not doing it was made in the article ‘Why not weight loss surgery‘. I think it’s worth a read.
My view is that it should be a last option for only those people who cannot find a way to lose weight otherwise. I’m not really sure that it’s done with that in mind. Despite guidelines that suggest it MUST be the only thing that will help, some people go to great lengths, even going overseas, to get the surgery.
It’s time to think about it and get serious about a diet before selecting what SEEMS like the simple way out. Believe me … Weight Loss Surgery is simple only going in. Once you’ve had it, life is never simple again.
I recently asked about a friend who intended to have surgery to lose weight (Bariatric Surgery). I was surprised to find that he won’t be getting it because it was decided that he wasn’t a good risk for it. He HAD lost weight on Nutrisystems (I understand about 50 pounds) but dropped the program. I don’t know what he’s going to do, but I think I’d advise him to get back on the diet.
I’ve worked with several companies in the industries around Bariatric Surgery. While this is a very good and effective procedure and really helps some people, many people who are considering it just don’t realize how much of a change in their lifestyle it’s going to make. Too many people considering surgery seem to think that it’s magic and will let them lose the weight without any effort. Let me say right away that it just isn’t so.
I’ve known a lot of people who’ve had surgery and it’s tough. Anyone who has lost weight by this means and kept it off deserves every bit of praise you can give them because they’ve made radical changes in their lifestyle. Weight Loss Surgery is a last resort and should be because it’s a major intervention in your body, but more than that, it’s not a magic bullet that will automatically make you lose weight and keep it off. The people I know who’ve had it have struggled to create new lives for themselves, lives that change their habits in ways that help them keep their weight down. It involves more than just changing eating patterns, though that’s a major part of it; it means living with a special diet, it means coping with massive weight loss, it means the need for plastic surgery if you want to look half-way decent, it means coping with problems you never expected, it means many things will have to change for you to be a continuing and not a fleeting success.
My hat goes off to anyone who has accomplished all of that. I’m not brave enough to do it.