Weight loss surgeries are not a cure for obesity. Infact you only have a few years to enjoy the sole benefits of weight loss surgeries.
Permanent weight loss is not assured through weight loss surgeries; rather it is about a change in lifestyle. Obviously weight loss surgeries do not constitute a lifestyle change.
Types of weight loss surgeries:
There are basically three types of weight loss surgery procedures;
(ii) Mal-absorptive weight loss surgery
(iii) Restrictive and mal-absorptive (Combined) weight loss surgery.
Restrictive weight loss surgeries are procedures that reduces the size of the stomach such that you are forced to eat less by restricting the amount of food you stomach can hold at a time hence the term restrictive surgery. This is usually done in two main ways, either using staples or using a band.
Both procedures reduce the size of the effective stomach by creating a small pouch out of the main stomach using either the band or staples.
Mal-absorptive weight loss surgeries on the other hand donot limit food intake. It inhibits absorption of calories. The procedures involve eliminating a substantial length of small intestines from coming in contact with the digested food.
The logic behind mal-absorptive surgeries are that though one may eat a lot of calories, fewer calories are absorbed into the blood stream due to a significantly shorter small intestines, the site for nutrient and calorie absorption.
Combined weight loss surgeries are a hybrid of the other two procedures. It has become more common as it is found to be more effective to restrict both calorie intake and absorption.
According to American Society of Bariatric Surgery, about 170,000 people in the year 2005 had weight loss surgeries. Most of these procedures were dome on adults 65 yrs old and younger who had been immobilized by their weigh and related medical conditions.
Weight Loss Surgeries are an extreme support structure:
It is important that weight loss surgeries is understood. They are not a cure for obesity they probably will never be. The only known cure for obesity is a change in lifestyle to a healthy diet and increased physical activities.
As so appropriately suggested by surgeon Harvey Sugerman professor emeritus of Virginia Commonwealth University and a past president of American Society of Bariatric Surgery, weight loss surgery