Drinking Through A Straw After WLS
April 22, 2016One piece of advice that well-intentioned bariatric surgeons and dietitians usually give to their patients is to NEVER drink through a straw after WLS. The reasoning provided for this counsel is usually along the lines that a patient who drinks through a straw will swallow too much air in the process and then become bloated and uncomfortable.
I’ve wondered about this advice for some time. As far as I can find, there isn’t much evidence to support that claim. Sure, if you look around online, there are a lot of people who will tell you that straw drinking causes abdominal gas symptoms, but all, at least as far as I have found, stop short of giving any objective evidence behind their advice to avoid the devil straw.
In light of the nearly complete lack of evidence, we should probably go with “expert” opinion--but I remain more than a bit skeptical.
In researching for this article, I decided to take the matter to the REAL experts on the matter, the bariatric surgery patients themselves. I guessed that although many of them had received advice somewhere along the line to the contrary, many of them had actually used straws for drinking.
Patient Responses About Drinking Through a Straw After WLS
Now the response of patients to my practice’s Facebook page is by no means a scientific survey, but the results were interesting to me. A few dutiful patients stated that they had never tried drinking through a straw after surgery simply because they were told not to. However, 22 other patients responded that they have no problems when drinking with a straw (or even that they prefer straw drinking), versus one lone patient who stated that it made their stomach uncomfortable to drink with a straw. A few others did comment that early on after surgery straw-drinking made them somewhat uncomfortable, but later as they were further out from their surgery they have no problems at all with it.
The key question in my mind is whether in reality, a person swallows more air when drinking by other means such as sipping from a cup?
Try to imagine what goes on inside your mouth when drinking. On one hand, you could just slosh some fluid into your wide open oral cavity (which would also contain a lot of air) and then hurriedly force that air/fluid mixture down the hatch. On the other hand, you could make your oral cavity into a little space and carefully fill it (yes, even with a straw) while expelling the excess air through your nose before swallowing. I believe that drinker number one would swallow lots of air in the process, while drinker number two, not so much. And from my experience, most bariatric patients tend to be fairly cautious fluid drinkers.
Swallowing Style With Straws Could Have Impact
Have you ever sat next to someone who drinks OBNOXIOUSLY loud? THAT particular individual is probably swallowing a lot of air when they drink. In essence, I believe that one’s personal swallowing STYLE has a lot more to do with how much air one swallows than HOW the fluid actually gets into the oral cavity in the first place.
Maybe one reason that this anti-straw advice persists is that when you consider the fluids usually consumed through a straw--sodas, sweet tea, milkshakes, and all assortments of coffee drinks--it is easier during a short office visit to just advise abandoning the straw completely. However, I believe that we should do the right things for the right reasons. Anything else borders on superstition, or as we refer to it in my field, surgical dogma.
The bottom line- examine your personal swallowing style. In light of so little solid information to guide us in giving sound advice on drinking with a straw after bariatric surgery, I would like to request the help of you, dear patients, as the REAL experts on the matter.
Those of you who have had surgery, please tell us of your experience in the comments below about drinking through a straw. I’m not advising that those of you who haven’t go out and abandon your surgeon’s advice to try it, but those of you who HAVE used straws regularly after surgery, do you get uncomfortable or bloated with straw drinking? Do you notice any difference at all?
 | ABOUT THE AUTHOR Dr. Benjamin Shadle is the Medical Director for Bariatric Surgery at Sutter Roseville Medical Center and continues his dream of helping his patients achieve healthier and happier lives through bariatric surgery and impacting the health of families for the better. He understands that obesity, diabetes, hypertension and other related diseases can have a tremendous negative impact on a patient's health and quality of life as well as family members.Read more articles by Dr. Shadle! |
