NYT Article: Why Bariatric Surgery Works When Diets Do Not

[RehabNurse]

“Bariatric surgery is probably the most effective intervention we have in health care,” says Laurie K. Twells, a clinical epidemiologist at Memorial University of Newfoundland. She bases this bold claim on her experience with seriously obese patients and a detailed analysis of the best studies yet done showing weight-loss surgery’s ability to reverse the often devastating effects of being extremely overweight on health and quality of life.

“I haven’t come across a patient yet who wouldn’t recommend it,” Dr. Twells said in an interview. “Most say they wish they’d done it 10 years sooner.” She explained that the overwhelming majority of patients who undergo bariatric surgery have spent many years trying — and failing — to lose weight and keep it off. And the reason is not a lack of willpower.

“These patients have lost hundreds of pounds over and over again,” Dr. Twells said. “The weight that it takes them one year to lose is typically back in two months,” often because a body with longstanding obesity defends itself against weight loss by drastically reducing its metabolic rate, an effect not seen after bariatric surgery, which permanently changes the contours of the digestive tract. In reviewing studies that followed patients for five to 25 years after weight-loss surgery, Dr. Twells and colleagues found major long-lasting benefits to the patients’ health and quality of life.

Read more by clicking on the link below:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/13/w...iets-dont.html

[DesertGal]

Excellent article. It explains so much more than I can try to educate the few people I have told this surgery about to.

[Christie13]

What a wonderfully written article. Just don't read the comments because there are some ignorant ones on there.

[Shirl]

What a wonderfully written article. Just don't read the comments because there are some ignorant ones on there.

Lol! Actually, I read most if the comments and they are very informative overall, with several great revutals for defense.

Comments keep the conversation alive.

That's what I enjoy reading the most!

[Christie13]

Lol! Actually, I read most if the comments and they are very informative overall, with several great revutals for defense.

Comments keep the conversation alive.

That's what I enjoy reading the most!

To be fair I did not read all of them. I did notice a lot of people did defend and rebut them. I just think that there is so much stigma for those of us that took the "easy" way out. I do not regret my decision one bit but honestly don't talk about my surgery to anyone but the people I chose to tell.

[ghost_ryder]

I wish this narrative was more the norm especially in the medical community. Before committing, I had three doctors tell me that having surgery was not a good option and if I just made a few changes....