Hottest thing in European weight loss surgery: inserting a balloon into your stomach and filling it with saline.
Inserted down the patient's throat, a round silicon balloon is filled with a saline solution and remains in the stomach for about six months, when it is deflated and taken out before the material degrades.
"We introduce a balloon of half a liter volume (about a pint) in the stomach and inflate it so it takes up space and helps slow down the eating," said Dr. Nicola Basso, the obesity surgeon who performed the procedure on Campati in early January. "This causes a sense of fullness, and the patient is helped to lose weight."
The balloon, which also contains methylene blue to signal any leak, does not alter the shape of the abdomen and is too big to slip down into the digestive tract.
Basso, who has performed the procedure on about 700 patients in six years, said the technique allows an average drop of 33-44 pounds over six months, although the weight loss is often temporary.
"The efficacy of the treatment depends on how the patient is able to use these six months to change his dieting habits in a more or less stable way," Basso said.
Or, you know, you could just use those six months to NOT put a balloon down your stomach, change the way you eat and live, and deal with your underlying issues--things you have to do even if you put a balloon down your stomach.
If you MUST do something surgical, this looks to be a better, much less lethal intervention than gastric bypass surgery, which has a mortality rate of 1%--that means for every 100 people who have the surgery, one dies. But if you don't take responsibility for your life and health, it won't make a bit of difference; you'll regain at least some of the weight.
Here's an Idea: Change your lifestyle. It's nonsurgical and it's even free.
Listen, I've had a weight problem all my life, and an eating disorder. I've been on every diet known to mankind, I've done 12-step work around it, I've faced it all. My cardiologist even recommended gastric bypass surgery; I weighed 255 at the time, my weight had nothing to do with my heart attack , and I was losing weight. I dismissed it out of hand. Surgery is SO not a solution to the problem, and in fact I have lost 20 pounds since he suggested it, 40 overall--for once I'm looking forward to seeing him next month.
What it takes:
- The courage to face your underlying issues. I'm still facing them, but I rarely turn to food any more. For me 12-step work and the work of Geneen Roth were crucial.
- The willingness to figure out what nutrition works for you. This takes time and research. What works for one person will not work for another. What I have found works for me is eating later in the day and concentrating any grain- and sugar-type carbs to the last thing I eat in the day, if at all. I try not to snack. I don't do this perfectly, but that's my guideline.
- The responsibility to do things we don't necessarily want to do, like exercise (bleh) and research on our own health issues. If I had left my health to the professionals I would be dead now, and that's not an exaggeration. I don't mean you should ignore your doctors; I mean you should do your due diligence and become the director of your health care. YOU ARE NOT HELPLESS. It is up to you.
There is no quick fix. There is no miracle cure. There is no pill, no operation, no doctor that can do it. There is only you, and time, and work. And that's not as scary as it sounds. It's the most hopeful thing I have ever realized.
Categories: fat, obesity, weight_loss, gastric_bypass, health
Technorati Tags: A New You
