Weight Loss Surgery Is a No Quick-Fix

Weight loss surgery (bariatric surgery) is being LARGELY glamorized in the media as the magical solution to achieve weight loss effortlessly . There’s more bariatric surgery than being a major surgery and rapid massive weight loss. Patients who undergo weight loss surgery (WLS) sign-up for a lifetime of rigid behaviors to guarantee their long-term success.
Bariatric surgery can produce significant weight loss. However, this surgery carries significant risk, so it is usually reserved for individuals who are morbidly obese (that is, whose body mass index, BMI, is 40 or higher ), and who other methods didn’t work for them , as that the size itself produces significant health hazard. More over those individuals should be committed to make permanent lifestyle changes.

Bariatric surgery basically alters your gastrointestinal tract. This surgery reduces the effective size of the stomach, usually either by gastric banding (placing an adjustable band around the stomach) or by gastric bypass (surgically isolating a large portion of the stomach), and thus greatly limits the volume of food that can be ingested at any one time.

These The modifications will require permanent changes in your eating habits that must be adhered to for successful weight loss. There are still questions to be answered about the long-term effects on nutrition and body systems. Nutritional deficiencies that occur over the course of many years will need to be studied. So even if you do the surgery you still need to go in dieting only this time it is more strict, and for life long.

Recent studies showed that patients who underwent bariatric surgery had a nearly twofold increased risk for fractures an even higher risk for foot and hand fracture. Also as the obesity carries a significant risk factor for cardiovascular disease, it has generally been sound that bariatric surgery would not reduce cardiac risk. On the other hand, solid evidence has been lacking that weight loss surgery actually accomplishes or increases this risk reduction.

Problems associated with bariatric surgery can range from minor to life-threatening. Complications may occur during, immediately after or within weeks or several months after surgery. Some of those complications are:

• Death, as in any surgical procedure the risk of death is always there
• Blood clots in the legs or lungs,
• Leaking at one of the staple lines in the stomach( in gastric bypass surgery
• Incision hernia,
• Dumping syndrome. This is a condition where stomach contents move too quickly through the small intestine, causing nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, dizziness and sweating. It's frequently experienced after eating sweets or high-fat foods.
• Vitamin and mineral deficiency
• Gallstones
• Kidney stones

After bariatric surgery you may experience one or more of the following changes as your body reacts to the rapid weight loss in the first three to six months:

• Body aches
• Feeling tired, as if you have the flu
• Feeling cold
• Dry skin
• Hair thinning and hair loss
• Mood changes

You may need additional surgery, re-admission to the hospital, medication or nutritional supplements may be required. Over time, you will need periodic checks for anemia (low red blood cell count) and Vitamin B12, folate and iron levels. Health insurance may not cover some or any of the costs related to these unanticipated circumstances.

In the end , it’s not a quick fix. It takes time to adjust to how you see yourself and how others see you after massive weight loss. But people who is morbidly obese and frustrating situation to losing weight, bariatric surgery may be an option.