When diet and exercise have failed, some people have nowhere to go.
Savvy fatties turn to their surgeons and ask for a gastric bypass, gastric band, gastrectomy or duodenal switch operation, types of obesity surgery for those who have tried every other method conceivable to lose weight with little or no result.
While a nip there and a tuck and a gouge there may sound great, obesity surgery is not for everyone.
It is almost always only for those who are facing imminent health problems due to their enormous bulk – including those who could die if they do not cut their weight down significantly.
A good doctor will only perform these types of operations on those with a body mass index, or BMI, of at least 35 accompanied with an obesity-related disease such as high cholesterol, high blood pressure and sleep apnoea. If your BMI is 40 and you don’t have such health problems, you could also be a candidate for surgery.
Types of Obesity Surgery
Different types of surgery suit different people. Discuss the options with your doctor first. Surgeries include:
Gastric Bypass Surgery: Originally performed in 1967, this type of surgery has evolved greatly since its introduction. The name comes from the fact that surgeons reconfigure parts of the stomach so that food bypasses the top bit of the gut, or the small intestine, to prevent it from being absorbed by the body, thus less weight being gained.
In most cases, a tiny part of the stomach is sectioned off to create a small pouch which will only accommodate small portions of food. If you eat more you feel sick, and may even throw up.
So eventually you will be trained to want – and eat – a lot less.
Several types of gastric bypass surgeries are on offer: the Roux-en-Y (distal), and the Roux-en-Y (proximal), the most common, the Mini Gastric Bypass.
Advantages:
Gastric bypass surgery is a radical step when all else has failed. It can help people reach a reasonable weight which would then allow them to exercise normally and keep the weight off. For people with severe health problems caused by being obese, it often is the only answer.
Often people take this step after being warned they face death unless they achieve significant weight loss.
Disadvantages:
Fourteen percent of patients who had this procedure where deep incisions were made suffered complications.
General risks overall are respiratory complications, infection, blood clots, bowel obstructions and leakage of the intestine or stomach contents into other parts of the body.
It might also exacerbate other health problems common among the morbidly obese.
