Some experts say that weight-loss surgery creates more problems than it solves. Among the critics is Jennifer Mann, an eating disorder specialist in Los Angeles who has treated several clients who have had gastric bypass surgery.

Let go to overview this dificult decision.

"I've seen massive infection," she said. "I've seen people hospitalized for malnutrition. I've seen people obsessed with food. I've seen people unable to stop vomiting. I've seen people develop massive eating disorders. I've seen people who are terrified of gaining weight. Terrified. It runs their lives." According to Mann, gastric bypass surgery is a bad idea for most people. "This is a permanent prison, in a sense," .

Experts say there's little data available on how the procedure affects patients 10 years afterward. Even Dr. Mathias Fobi, a respected bariatric surgeon, doesn't deny that the surgery carries risks and that it may cause difficulties later.

Dr Mason, the surgeon who invented the gastric bypass in the 1960's (no it's not a new surgery as some would have us believe) was even more explicit about the dangers of bariatric surgery. He wrote in an article in 1999 that "For the vast majority of patients today, there is no operation that will control weight to a "normal" level without introducing risks and side effects that over a lifetime may raise questions about its use for surgical treatment of obesity."

Dr Edward Livingston, director of the University of California At Los Angeles Bariatric Surgery program wrote: "By doing this surgery, you're creating a medical disease in the body. Before you expose someone to that risk, you have to be absolutely sure that you are treating an illness which is equal to or greater than the one you are creating." Ref: p 175, Self Magazine, April 2001 "Would you have surgery to lose weight?"

What is totally ignored by the ads and glowing testimonials from newly post ops is the fact that one simply cannot FIND folks with gastric bypasses who were operated on 20 years ago or more despite the fact that this procedure is the most popular in the United States. I could only find a handful of people who are 10-15 years out from surgery and all of them I've seen are very ill with multiple problems of osteoporosis, severe joint disease, and symptoms of long term malnutrition including anemia and brain damage. Some of them have regained their weight again.

The Gastric bypass, the most commonly done WLS procedure, partially disables the digestive tract to force the person on a starvation diet.

In most cases, the surgeons don't lie about side effects but minimize them and emphasize the weight losing aspect. They also, quote a lot of erroneous figures about how fat is so unhealthy and how the patients are going to die soon and how since all diets fail, surgery is their only option. (The fact that surgery is also a diet, only physically enforced, seems to elude many). Meetings for pre-ops are populated with happy faced post op patients eager to give their testimonies.

All the surgery does is cause a big weight loss by forcing starvation.

Ask a surgeon about longevity after surgery and they will tell you that a normal lifespan is expected but ask them if they know any long termers and they all, down to the man or woman, say that they know only one or two.

This may not be exactly the truth. A couple of clinics have extensive data on hundreds of post op patients. None of this data has been released and even a couple of WLS surgeons have lamented the fact that no one seems to care about what the surgery does internally on the long term basis or the prognosis for lifespan after surgery.

Many surgeons will answer the question about lifespan after surgery saying that, with surgery, a person can live longer than they can if they remain fat. For some, 'longer' may only be a couple of years.

The 300,000 dying from obesity is an erroneous figure of course. There is no connection between obesity and morbidity as proven by the Cooper Institute studies on 20,000 men. The so called Metlife studies showed no connection either. (REF: Gaesser, Glenn PHD: BIG FAT LIES - NY - 1996).

The bottom line is that many fat people go into surgery believing that their obesity will cause them an early death when sadly, the 'cure' is much worse than the obesity!

In a gastric bypass, the stomach is cut into two pieces, one small 1 oz pouch and a 39 oz bypassed part. Three rows of staples secure the two pieces so that most of the time they don't leak. So if you wish to reverse this surgery, how would you take the staples out and reconnect the two pieces? Answer: you don't.

Dr Louis Flancbaum tells his patients (and wrote in his book also) that the gastric bypass is like re-decorating your house. It would be pretty impossible to go back to the way it was before surgery.

Often during a takedown, they have to remove adhesions from the stomach (the body's reaction to surgery).

In a takedown, they also 'amputate' any of the small gut or stomach which has rotted. After a takedown, at least the patient is getting nutrition but they STILL have a reconfigured digestive tract with all the repercussions which go with it. Bottom line is the gastric bypass changes the digestive tract forever so if you have any doubts, this surgery may not be for you.

Another thing with a takedown - if you ask some surgeons about it, they will tell you they've seldom had to takedown anyone. This is true because most patients with a problem who approach their surgeons get the bums rush out of the office. All those people whom I know, who have had takedowns had to search far and wide for a surgeon to DO the surgery.

1. They did not bother to tell me that following this gastric bypass surgery that I would, and for the rest of my life I might add, have to take iron supplements. Your body does not pull out from the food that you eat the essential vitamins and minerals that you need.

2. It is wonderful that I can now drink all the coffee in the world and never have heart burn, but I am unable to eat but the smallest bit of beef, that's right folks, you might as well just remove beef from your diet unless you eat ground beef, because you have no stomach acid, in order for it to digest...so if you are a steak lover or enjoy beef roast just cross that one off the menu.

3. They also never bothered to tell me that I would also suffer from chronic bowel syndrome following this surgery.

4. You will also become rather prone to picking up every and any illness that you are exposed to because of the fact that your immune system will be compromised...mainly due to the iron issue.

5. Because they cut thru the stomach muscles, it is very difficult to regain the control over your gut.

Also be prepared to have a very nasty scar.

So I guess what I am saying is, DON'T DO IT...you do become obsessed with your weight, and it will still go up and down, and unless you are in good physical health you will gain it back.

• Weight Loss Surgeries (WLS )
  
  Sadly, most patients get their information from the media and those with vested interests in the surgery. If the evidence was better known, it's unlikely as many would rush to gamble with their lives in exchange for a remote chance to lose weight from a procedure that is:
  
  
  • Experimental, with very little research to support it.
  • Unlikely to make you much thinner in five years.
    
    Smith's group compiled medical research on WLS and found that "10 percent of patients don't lose any weight at all. ...Those more than 200 pounds overweight have only an 8 percent chance of getting down to [within 130 percent of their 'ideal' body weight ]. ... One in 10 loses the weight and keeps it off." The truest picture of the surgery's success and catastrophic complications isn't found in patients during the first few honeymoon years after their surgeries, she said, but after five or more years. But, just try to find them.
    
    A 1999 gastric bypass study that found only 7 percent of patients kept off all the weight they initially lost, only slightly higher than the stated success rate for dieting, which is 5 percent.
    
  • Unproven to be more effective than a diet.
  • The most dangerous surgery performed, besides open heart, regardless of whose numbers you believe.
    
    The 2000 Mayo Clinic study on gastric bypass reported that 20 to 25 percent of the patients developed life-threatening complications within five years, in addition to a 10 percent morbidity and mortality during the post-op period.
    
    The chances of dying from the surgery even before leaving the hospital "reliably range from 0.2 to 2 percent," said Ernsberger. Surgeons often give the lower numbers, he said, but "they exclude deaths they feel are unrelated to the surgery, which would appear to be almost all of the deaths they see."
    
    Long-term mortality data is especially hard to obtain. Analysis is complicated by the fact that many don't attribute deaths from long-term complications, such as liver cirrhosis, to the surgery, and usually categorize death as "due to obesity" or lump them into the "lost in follow-up" category, Ernsberger said. "The bottom line," he said, "is that NOT ONE randomized clinical trial has ever been reported that gives mortality data."
    
    risk of dying after these secondary operations is three times higher than for the initial surgery. More than one-third develop gallstones and nearly 30 percent of patients develop nutritional deficiencies that can result in anemia and bone disease, arthritis, compromised immune system and hair loss.

    Malabsorption operations also carry a notable risk for dumping syndrome, it said, which causes nausea, sweating, fainting, and diarrhea after eating. The more extensive the bypass the greater the risks for complications and nutritional deficiencies, stated WIN, and patients will "require close monitoring and life-long use of special foods, supplements and medications."

  • Permanent; you'll never be normal again.
    
    WLS causes nutritional deficiencies in nearly all patients.
    
    Most WLS survivors can only eat 500 to 1,100 calories a day for the rest of their lives, much of the nutrients in their foods aren't absorbed, and they must forever eliminate certain foods, such as meats, starches and dairy, from their diets because they can't be digested.
    
    Just like anyone else on a starvation diet, WLS survivors become obsessed with food. What's rarely mentioned is that WLS often leads to serious eating disorders.

January 2006.
Fighting against Fat Discriminaiton in all ways.