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Sunday, November 18, 2007

Is it Good to Lose Weight Via Surgery?

Does surgery work in attaining weight loss goal? It looks like this is the only treatment that results in long term weight loss. The loss is sustained and significant. In this surgery, the stomach is stapled or sewn so that only a small amount of food can go through.

Because the stomach is smaller, one feels fuller. This slows down the appetite and inhibits eating. There's another way the appetite is reduced. Usually, four hours after eating, a hormone called ghrelin is released by the intestine and the stomach into the blood.

Ghrelin is the hormone that travels to the brain and sends a signal to make one feel hungry again. Studies have shown that with the stapling of the stomach, ghrelin is reduced thus reducing also the appetite. This naturally leads to weight loss.

During the first year after the gastric surgery, 75 to 100 lbs is lost. And the weight loss is maintained for at least several years. The weight loss has remarkable results. Type 2 diabetes sometimes disappears. Medication sometimes is no longer needed.

If this is good, why not give people a chance to beat diabetes by going through weight loss surgery? Well, surgery has risks, one of them being death. The recovery may be slow and there are complications so they screen the candidates who can undergo this procedure.

Candidates for this surgery are the ones who can gain a lot from it. That would mean someone who is extra obese. The guidelines recommend only those whose BMI is over 45 or if less, they have complications linked to obesity should undergo this surgery.

How about liposuction? Does this work? Studies revealed that weight reduction this way where fat is removed from certain areas of the body is only temporary. In addition, this way does not have the same benefit that losing weight the old-fashioned way has. And it is dangerous to boot.
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