Metabolic Surgery for Obesity Is No Quick Fix — It’s a Tool
Metabolic surgery is both the same and different in many ways from other medical treatments or surgical interventions. While it is true that as a surgical intervention it cures disease and prolongs life, it is also quite true that the outcomes depend significantly on the person receiving the treatment.
If you think about it for a minute, you realize this is true for most of other medical treatments or surgical interventions. Imagine the person taking a blood pressure medicine or a diabetes medicine who makes no effort to control their calorie and carbohydrate intake or who refuses to quit smoking.
Likewise, think of a patient undergoing hip reconstruction surgery who refuses to follow doctor’s orders or do their physical therapy. The outcomes, the benefit of the treatment, won’t be as favorable.
The Benefits Are Too Many to Ignore
The same thing is true with metabolic surgery. Nowadays, we have enormous databases from large health systems and even entire countries that show unmistakably the powerful, beneficial effects of metabolic surgery.
People who undergo a bariatric surgical procedure (a.k.a., sleeve gastrectomy, gastric bypass) live longer – and significantly so – than their counterparts who did not have the surgery. That survival advantage, in and of itself, is a profound finding not realized by many medical therapies.
People also have lower risk of strokes, heart attacks, kidney failure, and even cancer. So, there’s no denying the tremendous benefit for people with obesity or type two diabetes receiving the treatment of metabolic surgery. But why doesn’t it work to the same degree for every single person?
Results Are Individual
Some of the variation has to do with our individual genetics and biology. Metabolic surgery acts by changing the hormonal levels of key hormones that emanate from the gastrointestinal tissues. By altering those tissues, the hormone levels change to more favorable levels substantially and for the long term.
Those hormone changes reset the metabolic rate, the levels of fat storage, long-term blood sugar levels, and the body weight setpoint, all for the better. But the individual plays a role also.
Positioning Metabolic Surgery as a Tool
In this way, metabolic surgery is a tool and not a quick fix. Body weight and blood sugar regulation are some of the body parameters that are most influenced by the choices we make, what we do, and what we eat.
So, it makes sense that a person who shifts their dietary choices away from high calorie, high carbohydrate foods to things like healthy vegetables and lower carbohydrate items will indeed have lower blood sugar and somewhat lower body weight.
Likewise, a person who starts walking their dog 30 minutes a day and gradually builds up to a 90-minute walk seven days a week will maintain a healthier long-term body weight than the person who stays on the couch.
The take-home lesson is that if you or a loved one is struggling with obesity or type two diabetes, you will be well-served to take an objective look at the safest and best treatment for the conditions. But you would also be well-served to utilize that treatment – metabolic surgery – as a tool, and not simply as a quick fix.
Have you ever tried a quick fix for a health issue? What was it? Did it work? Do you think there is a tool you should have considered instead?
Tags Medical Conditions
The subject point of the article was that surgery is “NOT” a quick fix. It is a tool. Surgery, followed by a lifestyle of diet and activity, is successful for most to have a longer and healthier life than those who remained obese for whatever the reason. WW does work for some people but not all, if it worked for every one they’d not have to change it every so many years. The comment about smoking, wasn’t saying everyone that smokes chose to smoke and refuses to stop. It really looks like it triggered a defensive response in a few of you. Yet I have to also remind myself, we have become the society of taking offense.
Every medical procedure Carrie’s a certain level of risk. The risks one faces with Bariatric surgery are far less than the risk of remaining obese. There is tons & tons of information to support this if you are interested in the topic.
I understand the frustration the doctor must feel when people don’t do what is good for them. But im not sure that referring to smokers who are unable to quit as “refusing” to quit. There are numerous studies indicating the mechanism of addiction in the brain with new information coming to light every day.
Approaching addictive behaviors and addiction from the perspective of understanding the physiological piece and providing the patient with information seem a much more effective approach than taking the stance that people are not trying hard enough, lack the will or in some way are choosing to stay immobilized in their addiction. Threatening bad consequences doesn’t work and further stigmatizes “failure”. Education, setting clear boundaries and support work much better…
I have been a weight watcher for 22 years. I lost 37 pounds then and have kept it off. Weight Watchers teaches you how to eat healthy foods.I know people who have lost 100 pounds and kept the weight off for many years. There is no quick fix. You have to eat healthy and know about what goes into your mouth.
I have been a weight watcher for 22 years. I lost 37 pounds then and have kept it off. Weight Watchers teaches you how to eat healthy foods.I know people who have lost 100 pounds and kept the weight off for many years. There is no quick fix. You have to eat healthy I know about what goes into your mouth.