With obesity rising at alarming rates in the U.S., UK, and
developed countries around the world--so much that the U.S.
Department of Health has officially classified obesity as an
"illness" and the World Health Organization has dubbed it a
"pandemic"--weight-loss surgery is also on the rise. Traditional
weight-loss programs such as diet, exercise, and pharmaceuticals,
are only effective for significant and sustained weight loss for
about 10 percent of all people who try. The results are even more
dismal for the obese aiming to lose not just a few pounds, but 50,
75, or more. Yet, the health of these individuals lies in the
balance, because obesity or morbid obesity (100 pounds or more
overweight by medical standards) increases by 50 to 100 percent
their risk of developing heart disease, high blood pressure,
diabetes, and certain cancers. Weight-loss surgery, however, is
effective in bringing 80 percent of obese people to or close to
average weight for their height, explains Dr. Hamilton, an
Instructor at Harvard Medical School. Even more impressive, most
sustain that weight loss for at least 10 years. Hamilton doesn't
perform such surgeries, but this Tufts-educated doctor has more
than general medical insight. She had the surgery herself six years
ago, reducing from the size 20 she was then to the size 8 she is
now. "Surgical weight loss is unequivocally more effective than any
other method," she says. Certainly there are complexities, risks,
and some "grueling decisions" involved. But life as an obese person
can be more risky to health and more grueling to mental health, she
adds. The National Institutes of Health apparently agree, as NIH
has issued recommendations for morbidly obesepeople to have
weight-loss surgery. In the United States alone weight-loss
surgeries have risen from 12,700 in 1988 to more than 78,000 in
2005. "Still, fewer than one percent of the patients who fit the
requirements for weight-loss surgery are ever referred to such a
specialist," says Hamilton. "And in blacks, where the prevalence of
obesity is even higher, the referral rates are even lower," she
adds. Hamilton makes clear the rewards, and the risks, of surgery
that reduces stomach size or removes a piece of the intestine so
calories cannot be absorbed. This book includes interviews with
previously obese males and females who've had the surgery, as well
as descriptions of the procedures, recovery times, costs, and
insurance issues.
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