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Gastric Banding - The Untold StoryIn both the US & Australia, weight loss surgery has seen a dramatic rise in the past decade. It is being touted as 'the hottest thing' in weight loss and as a long-term weight loss solution, with minimal risk and side effects. For many this may be true but for many it is not as 'easy' as originally put forward by health care professionals. It is important to understand what the procedure is and the pros and cons before gastric banding is seen as an option: What is the procedure? In very simple terms, an adjustable band is wrapped around the upper part of the stomach to restrict food intake, causing feelings of fullness for longer. The band is adjusted through the injection of saline solution through an external port that is left just under the skin. The surgery is usually performed via laparoscopic incisions through the abdomen. Pros Cons • Weight loss initially is fast and significant and then
plateaus o 1 year - Up to 50% excess body fat loss in the first year • Post surgical complications and inability to get standard diagnostic imaging o Some people may be too large for the diagnostic scanning and
imaging equipment e.g. CT scans and MRIs. One study found 27% of
morbidly obese clients were unsuitable.: Like any surgery, gastric banding does come with risks. Like any effective, long-term weight loss method, gastric banding is not a quick fix solution that never needs to be worked on again. The regulations for having surgery are, 'severely obese adults who had tried, but failed, to lose weight by other means'. Most of the time when obese people say they "have tried everything", what they mean is that they have tried 'every diet' and it hasn't worked. The majority of people who are overweight or obese use food like a drug. Just like a drug addict has a drug of choice – heroin, crack, marijuana; overweight or obese people have their drug of choice – food (too much, sugary, fatty, high calorie, low nutritional value)! Just like drugs, food releases brain chemicals that alter feelings and mood and it masks or dampens thoughts and emotions. All that surgery does is reduce the amount of food that can be eaten, but it doesn't change the poor coping mechanisms for dampening or masking emotions or thoughts. Gastric surgery does not help someone identify why they emotionally overeat and then give them new strategies to better cope – it's another band aide, another quick fix. Long-term, if new, healthy mechanisms are not developed to deal with emotions and thoughts, people will return to their faulty patterns. Therefore, what is missing from the obesity treatment plan pre- and post-surgery is a program based significantly on the psychological and emotional mechanisms resulting in obesity. The surgeons, organizations, societies and clinics that deal with obesity and gastric surgery all state that surgery is not a cure-all, it requires a lifetime commitment to lifestyle changes – nutritionally, physically, emotionally, and psychologically. Kellee Waters – The Fat Whisperer Below are several case studies of clients who have had gastric banding with different experiences and outcomes: 1) Jenny – 39 year old female – obese since early teens. Had a medical history of a degenerative digestive system disease. Underwent gastric banding and was told that even with her medical condition, this was the safest possible option with very little risk. She underwent the surgery. Was discharged from hospital 3 days later still in pain and vomiting. Readmitted through emergency 2 days later and investigation found that she had some internal bleeding from the surgery. She was told that she would need surgery to stop the bleeding and was told that there was very little risk involved. She woke up 10 days later in the ICU (Intensive Care Unit) ward of the hospital! Complications had occurred and she had died on the operating table. She was then told that the doctors had to perform an emergency gastric bypass. Her stay in the ICU was for another 10 days and she was finally discharged 3 weeks later. She was still in a lot of pain, vomiting and could not hold down food and very little fluid. She remained very ill for the next 6 weeks where she was continually readmitted into hospital until further diagnostic imaging found that surgical instruments had been left inside of her. She had to undergo more surgery. After seeking further medical treatment after the surgery, she was also told that the original surgeon had left her with very little stomach (he removed 2/3 of her stomach) and had left blind endings (basically he had not plumbed her digestive and organ system back correctly). 3 years on and she was malnourished, vomited even if she consumed more than 150ml of liquid at a time and was know verging on anorexia. She was constantly in pain as the malnourishment and lack of correct digestive and organ connection had caused other medical conditions. She was now dying and no medical professional could help her! 2) Amanda – 28 year old female – obese since childhood. Healthy despite being morbidly obese. Had tried dieting (and every diet on the market) since she was 14. She was a good candidate for surgery. Her surgery was successful. She lost 1/3 of her excess body weight in 1 year but then plateaued for 2 years (she was still obese). She hated having the band in and wishes she had never done it and was too petrified to have it removed. She could hardly eat – meat, fibrous vegetables, complex carbohydrates were all off the menu. She could only eat ¼ cup of food in any one sitting and then still she felt sick or would vomit it all back up. She kept getting the band adjusted to try and stop the vomiting but no matter how much it was loosened, she still felt sick or vomited every time she ate. She knew that she had not changed her behavioral or psychological mechanisms and believed that if she had the band removed, she would quickly eat her way back to being morbidly obese. She realized that the gastric band had helped her lose weight but it had not changed the way she thought about food and activity. She realized that if she was to lose more weight, with or without the band, she would have to deal with her psychological issues around food and change her lifestyle behaviors. She started doing this and felt more confident, self-efficacious over food, she began exercising and losing weight. Amanda came to the realization that the band was a helping hand in weight loss but it was not a life changing experience. Only she could change her life. 3) Jessica – 25 year old female – mother of 2 – morbidly obese since mid teens. She had an underactive thyroid, diabetes type II and her blood pressure was increasing. She had trouble keeping up with her young children and was so sick of being ridiculed for her weight and size, especially by the men in her life. She looked into gastric banding and decided that it would help her. She had the surgery and it was successful. She was so happy with the results – very little recovery time, little illness post surgery and 1 year on, just over a 1/4 of her excess body weight was lost. She was feeling confident and everything was going well until she hit a plateau 2 years later. She started emotional eating again, she lost confidence, felt self-conscious and was starting to retreat to all of her old, negative thoughts and behaviors. 4 years on and she is still struggling with her emotions, food, activity, motivation and self-esteem. She continually yo-yo diets – losing weight and putting it back on. She is still obese and still struggling. She has started on the road to changing her old emotional, psychological and behavioral patterns and has a long road ahead. 4) Rachel – 32 year old female – morbidly obese since early teens and obese since childhood. In good health and underwent gastric banding. She got an infection and was admitted to ICU within 5 days of the original surgery. She was given some very intensive drug treatment to try and control the infection however, this failed and she had to undergo surgery. She was admitted to ICU immediately after the second surgery and while there underwent more drug therapy and one more operation. 21 weeks after the initial gastric band surgery she was able to leave the hospital. As a result of her ordeal she was left with an incisional abdominal hernia (approximately 20cm in diameter) and renal failure. She requires an operation to repair the hernia and a kidney transplant but need to reduce her weight by 66 pounds to be eligible and safe for surgery. She visits the hospital 4 times a week for dialysis. She has type II diabetes and an underactive thyroid. She has posttraumatic stress disorder relating to operations due to her first experience. She has significant grief and loss for a normal life as she is sick much of the time, making it difficult to work, she would like a relationship with someone special but does not want to burden them with her illness and potential death (if she does not get a transplant), her life expectancy has been significantly reduced and her medical expenses far outweigh her income, making it very difficult to seek appropriate medical treatments. Other articles by this author »
About Kellee Waters
Kellee Waters (The Fat Whisperer) is a psychologist-coach, hypnotherapist and fitness coach. She has suffered from childhood obesity, anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder and adult yo-yo dieting and being overweight. Kellee has developed a program for getting people off the weight and dieting rollercoaster. Kellee specializes in weight management of normal weight people who are on the yo-yo dieting cycle through to the morbidly obese. She also specializes in pain management, contracting to a major back and pain rehabilitation hospital program in Australia, using her own experiences to guide others through the minefield. Related
And here is another random article you might be interested in... Outsourcing For ProfitIs your business growing and expanding? Do you find that you are offering more products and services? Do you feel the need to hire other people to do certain tasks that you simply can't do yourself due to the lack of time and experience in that particular field? Well if you have answered yes to these questions,then outsourcing may be the very thing that you need for your business. You see, if you delligate some of the productivity to other people and other intities that specialize in certain products and services, you will quickly find that you can get a whole lot more done in a minimum amount of time. For example, let's suppose that you are runnning your own e-book business on the Internet, and you need some graphic work done for your web site. You could hire someone to do it, or you can find a particular company that specializes in web graphics, and hire them to create the graphics for your site. The reason for delligating out services to other people and to other companies is so that you can stick to the task of running and managing your business. Yo may not have the time, or the skills to do some of the things that are required of your business to perform, and that's where other people and other companies come into play. What this does for you and your business is nothing short of phenominal. By delligating services and projects to other people and other businesses, you can focus upon either writing the e-books themselves, or whatever else you need to do to insure that the business runs like it should. This also eases up time for things such as public speaking, making phone calls, and sending those all too important e-mail messages to potential JV partners, customers and subscribers. After all, yo need to make your business grow, and with the other services and activities delligated out to other people and businesses, you can get more done for your business. Outsourcing is a Godsend when it comes to managing your business because it shows that you aren't afraid to venture out and use the services of other people, and businesses. Not only that, but did you ever stop to think that by delligating out these services to other people and to other businesses may also be a great form of advertisement for the business? Well it is and for good reason too. You see, once the other individual, or company gets involved in doing something for your business, they quickly become familiarized with what you do, and that is enough to spark off some word of mouth advertising from those other people, and businesses about your business. So what happens with outsourcing is this; your business begins to create a web of resources for itself that can be used time and time again, thus expanding the business to include other people and the services of other companies. Now this doesn't mean that those other people and those other businesses stop being independent intities. They still remain as they are, but with a bit of a twist. They have become affiliated with you and your business to perform certain tasks that will help your business to sell its products and services, and thus also help the other individual, or business to do the same. So in a small way, outsourcing is much like a joint venture. The key to proper outsourcing is to find the right people and companies that are well suited for the job that is needed to be done. That is where research comes in. You don't want to use the first person, or company that you find. Instead you want to find several people, and companies that you want to screen to find out which of these has the best skills suitable for the job that you want done. Remember, you want professional work done, not amature work. You want something that will truly reflect what your business is about to your customers and subscribers. So the next time that you have some huge project come up in your business, think about outsourcing, and think about the skill levels of the people and companies that you choose for the job. If you choose the right people and the right company for the task, then your Donald Brown is the owner of Internet Profit Goldmine, which can be found at the following address here below http://www.freewebs.com/dbrwn/goldmine.html What is Internet Profit Goldmine? This is one site that you should have listed in your favorites. Why should you ahve it listed there? You should list it because this site contains valuable free Internet marketing information that is designed to help to move your business to the next level and beyond. Also check out our very low cost premium services, such as our Text To MP3 Services, and our Internet Business Consulting Services. You can send an e-mail to the address shown here below You may also give Donald a call at: 409-755-3140 Make sure that when you call, that you ask for Donald Brown Jr. product or service that you are developing will be premium, and your company will be recognized for what it has accomplished. However, choose the wrong people and companies to do the work, and watch your business fall apart. Other articles by this author »
About Donald Brown
Donald Brown is the owner of Internet Profit Goldmine, which can
be found at the following address here below What is Internet Profit Goldmine? This is one site that you should have listed in your favorites. Why should you ahve it listed there? You should list it because this site contains valuable free Internet marketing information that is designed to help to move your business to the next level and beyond. Also check out our very low cost premium services, such as our Text To MP3 Services, and our Internet Business Consulting Services. You can send an e-mail to the address shown here below You may also give Donald a call at: 409-755-3140 Make sure that when you call, that you ask for Donald Brown Jr. Related
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