Bariatric Surgery Has Its Place?

I have had to work pretty hard to talk the occasional patient into bariatric surgery; going "under the knife" is always scary. In general, I work pretty hard to talk our society out of it. If anything in medicine is the proverbial double-edged sword, it's the scalpel blade used to perform a gastric bypass. The case for bariatric surgery is quite compelling. Once obesity develops, it's rather hard to reverse permanently. Testimony to this is found in the multi-billion dollar weight loss industry of lotions, potions, programs, and books- not to mention the more intimate evidence you might have from any personal weight control struggles.

In contrast to most of the offerings, which run from faint if genuine hope to outright snake oil, bariatric surgery -- which includes but is not limited to gastric bypass -- truly works. Large amounts of weight, sometimes measured in the hundreds of pounds, are routinely lost. More importantly, most of that weight lost stands the test of time. It is possible to gain back weight after bariatric surgery, but it is generally a challenge. Click here for full article.