Is Weight Loss Surgery Actually The Best Solution For Obesity
Is Weight Loss Surgery Actually The Best Solution For Obesity
In the following article we’ll mention a crucial topic that’s “Is Weight Loss Surgery The Best Solution For Obesity?” let’s discuss within the article given below:
WE’RE frequently told that the key to weight loss is simple — just eat less and move more.
Yet with obesity rates as they are, it’s clear that for many people, it’s really not that simple at all. There is, of course, another option for those who are seriously obese or overweight and conservative methods alone haven’t worked — and that’s weight loss surgery, also known as bariatric or metabolic surgery.
This type of surgery is available for people who meet certain medical and weight criterialy, at a substantial cost.
Obesity has been quite a major health issue all across the world for a while. However, it has now become a growing cause of concern in India too in the recent years as more and more health problems like diabetes, joint pains etc are all being traced to patients being overweight. Being overweight or obese is actually a lifestyle issue which is why surgical fat removal for cosmetic or health purposes can only be a temporary solution. If the patient’s eating habits and lifestyle remain the same, the surgery will really have no effect in the long term. Instead it is important to go for organic solutions for obesity to avoid further complications caused by obesity.
This is the reason for an increased need for awareness about Bariatric surgery. Bariatric surgery can help avoid hypertension, diabetes, Kidney Disorders/Failure, Joint Pains, Infertility, Sleep Apnea, Depression and Anxiety Disorders, and even certain varieties of Cancer. The biggest advantage of Bariatric surgery is that it is a minimally invasive procedure done with laparoscopic techniques. This means that not only is the interference with the body minimal, the recovery is much faster than an open surgery. Bariatric surgery essentially involves two approaches, either reducing the intake of food by decreasing the
size of the stomach (thereby reducing its capacity for food) or by reducing the absorption of the food nutrients by rearranging the intestines. In some cases, it can also require both procedures to be done. These include:
- Laparoscopic Adjustable Gastric Band
- Sleeve Gastrectomy
- Roux-En-Y or Gastric Bypass Mini Gastric Bypass
- Duodenal Switch
- Revision Surgery
- Post-Surgery Body Contouring
As Bariatric surgery works from within by reducing the appetite and also the desire for more food, it’s a far healthier approach than other surgical procedures. The surgery followed with a stable diet as well as a more active lifestyle can actually go a long way for an obese patient to go back to a healthy and normal life.
Some argue that diet and exercise, rather than expensive surgery, should be used to treat diabetes or severe obesity. This idea is both ill-conceived and ill-informed.
In fact, there’s definitive evidence that where surgery is indicated by current guidelines, lifestyle interventions alone are no longer sufficient to achieve adequate disease control. On the other hand, in people with mere overweight or mild, uncomplicated obesity (BMI under 35 without other metabolic disease), surgery isn’t indicated and isn’t a replacement for a healthy lifestyle, which can still be effective in preventing progression towards more severe obesity.
Hence, suggesting lifestyle interventions and not surgery should be the way to treat severe obesity is at odds with both scientific evidence and logic.
Suggesting use of only lifestyle interventions in people with severe obesity (a full-blown disease) is tantamount to suggesting one should use lifestyle changes instead of surgery or chemotherapy to treat cancer.
Who Can Have The Surgery
There’s a range of criteria for having weight loss surgery. These may include having a BMI of over 40, or having a BMI of 35-40 if you’ve already developed health complications that may improve with weight loss. Patients will need to be committed to long-term healthy changes after the surgery too.
Recent clinical trials have shown that in patients with type 2 diabetes and obesity, metabolic surgery is more effective than any other available therapy.
Currently, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and international guidelines recommend metabolic surgery be considered to treat type 2 diabetes patients and those with a BMI of 30 or over. However, only 0.2% or less of eligible patients have access to such surgery.
Who shouldn’t have the surgery?
A number of factors can deem people unsuitable for surgery too, including: “People who don’t suffer from severe obesity or its complications. Bariatric surgery is generally safe but this doesn’t mean it’s an appropriate or proportionate approach to deal with less severe overweight levels, where lifestyle changes have been shown to prevent progression toward severe obesity or diabetes in many patients.”
Also, people who are candidates for surgery but would be unsafe to operate on. Though bariatric surgery is less life-threatening than obesity or diabetes, it’s still major surgery and requires general anaesthesia.
And people with conditions that can undermine compliance with nutritional supplementation.
Bariatric surgery can alter the absorption of certain vitamins and micronutrients, so patients need to rigorously take nutrient supplements, lifelong.