Posted on 12/02/2010 10:04:56 PM PST by neverdem
Weight-loss surgery, once a last resort for extremely overweight people, may soon become an option for those who are less heavy.
An advisory committee to the Food and Drug Administration will consider on Friday a request by Allergan, the pharmaceutical company, to significantly lower how obese someone must be to qualify for surgery using the company’s Lap-Band device, which restricts intake to the stomach.
On Wednesday, the F.D.A. acknowledged that a new study by the company showed that people in the proposed range of obesity who had the band experienced “statistically significant decreases in all measures of weight loss.”
If the agency approves the change, the number of Americans eligible for the Lap-Band operation could easily double, ensuring more sales for Allergan and probably more insurance coverage for such operations. But the proposed change, sought at a time when the obesity epidemic in the United States seems intractable, still leaves some people uneasy, in part because of side effects and failure rates. In addition, long-term weight reduction is hard to maintain.
“You’re talking about millions and millions of people who would meet these criteria,” said Dr. George Blackburn, associate director of the division of nutrition at Harvard Medical School. “Let’s make sure by the most rigorous research that this is safe and effective.”
A new generation of diet pills has failed to gain federal approval, limiting options for overweight Americans, and Allergan and other companies are betting that surgery will become more of a frontline option rather than a last resort.
“It would be kind of ironic if people have access to surgery and not medical therapies, where they can go from Weight Watchers to surgery and have nothing in-between,” said Dr. Louis J. Aronne, an obesity expert at Weill Cornell Medical College...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Self righteous FR fat cops to arrive in 3...2...1...
“Self righteous FR fat cops to arrive in 3...2...1...”
They’re lean-they can get here in 1.5;)
I had the surgery and was almost killed.He cut an artery. I spent 10 days in ICU and 7 days in a suite room. When I got better, I whacked the doctor with my cane.
Yeah, but you must have lost SO much weight!
The mechanism that controls our appetite is located in the stomach. The Lap-Band device interferes with that mechanism and someday we will have a pill to do the same thing.
I did but I paid an extremely high price.It has changed my life dramatically for the better and worse. I still suffer “side effects” from the surgery. I spent two months in convalescent from their mistake.
As one who would be considered obese myself, I’m against these surgeries. Finding a doctor to figure out what’s making one overeat makes a lot more sense, not that it’s easy to do. I’m currently seeing a great doctor (in fact, he was on a list recommended to me by a FReeper!), and I’m determined to get to the bottom of this issue. So is my doc! I *did* lose ten pounds immediately after cutting out milk, gluten, and wheat, which I found out I was allergic to.
It is a real simple solution if you are overweight. Dont eat so much and take a walk after dinner. Dont eat after dinner. Eat whatever you want just less. In a year you will have lost a bunch of weight. Too easy! Besure to eat a big breakfast.
I'd also like to know if anyone who's had the procedure has found relief from existing neuropathy.
That's an understatement. Many smart scientists have been working on the problem for decades, and they have utterly failed to help 90% or more of obese patients get the weight off and keep it off long-term -- until this surgery was invented.
Hunger is second only to the sex drive in its power over human behavior. Glib exhortations to "eat less" or look for "root causes" are not just doomed to failure, but downright cruel, stupid, and counterproductive. It's much the same way that the bogus ideas of Freud damaged countless families by insisting that nonexistent "root causes" for mental illness were attributable to minor variations in things like maternal care and affection.
Biochemistry and endocrinology are not changed by psychologists or dietitians.
<They’re lean-they can get here in 1.5;)
Hee hee. I shouldn’t have laughed, but that was funny.
Sadly, I know of 2 people who’ve died from gastric bypass and while I understand that the lap band isn’t as drastic, why chance it? Go veg, my friends, go veg.
/runs from the folks here who hate people who eat veggies.
Some type 2 diabetics can control their diabetes by reducing and controling their weight. Their excess weight is causing what's called insulin resistance. They need more insulin than "normal" people to get the glucose out of their blood into cells.
I'd also like to know if anyone who's had the procedure has found relief from existing neuropathy.
No, but have you tried Lyrica?
Had Lap-Band surgery in May. I am down 73 pounds, and still losing, with little exercise, and never hungry. Was shooting up with insulin 5x a day, none now. Was taking 9 heart/BP pills a day, one now. It’s not a silver bullet, but it worked for me. Surgery was simple—only discomfort was from where they sew the “filler” to the inside of your skin near the surface. It is more successful for men than women, it is slower—but far safer than—gastric bypass. Mortality rate complications are almost non-existant, compared to an alarming number of deaths with gastric bypass. Best decision I ever made.
The really good news? We can’t possibly ask people to pay for this themselves. Just ask Imam Obama.
Bariatric surgery is much worse than what they say. Even years after, people who have had bariatric surgery have a higher risk of death from many causes, including suicide.
http://junkfoodscience.blogspot.com/2007/01/junkfood-science-weekend-special.html
That says I’m 10 pounds underweight.
Can I get some fat pumped into me?
[and can I pick ~where~ they put it?]....LOL
LOL!
Good on ya!
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