The FastDay Forum

The profits to surgeons and hospitals from these surgeries are immense. And what most people don't realize, is that unlike the case with drugs, surgeons do not have to go through any supervised testing procedure to prove that the surgeries they do are safe. They can do any surgery they want (viz. "cosmetic" mutilations of women's vaginas) and the only thing that can stop them is if the hospital takes away their surgical privileges after a large number of deaths lead to costly law suits or if they can't find people or insurers willing to pay them. A 1-2% death rate for surgery on the obese is dismissed with the spurious claim that the obese would have died of obesity-related health issues anyway. The statistics underlying that claim are derived by so-called professionals using techniques that make you realize just how corrupting money can be.

Here are a few reputable links to back up my assertion about the death rate.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5658690 (NPR is national public radio, the noncommercial network found in the U.S.)

This one is from the surgeons' group promoting the surgery: http://www.bariatric-surgery-source.com/gastric-bypass-surgery-deaths.html . Note that these statistics are only from the 6 weeks after surgery, as surgeons never do follow up on their patients after that time has elapsed. These rates look low, until you multiply them out by the total number of people in the U.S. who have the surgery every year.

Here's a blog that debunks the claim that WLS cures diabetes: http://diabetesupdate.blogspot.com/2012/03/no-wls-does-not-cure-diabetes-study-by.html

Peebles thank you for the link.
Clearly Gastric bypass surgery has its immense risks.

I am wondering if the risks/effect of sleeve gastrectomy surgery is different to gastric bypass (or lapband).

Vertical sleeving is the unreversible removal of 80% of the stomach organ leaving just a sleeve per this diagram and link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleeve_gastrectomy


wiki says
Sleeve gastrectomy was originally performed as a modification to another bariatric procedure, the duodenal switch, and then later as the first part of a two-stage gastric bypass operation on extremely obese patients for which the risk of performing gastric bypass surgery was deemed too large. The initial weight loss in these patients was so successful it began to be investigated as a stand alone procedure.

Today sleeve gastrectomy is the fastest growing weight loss surgery option in North America and Asia. In many cases, but not all, sleeve gastrectomy is as effective as gastric bypass surgery, including weight independent benefits on glucose homeostasis. The precise mechanism(s) that produce these benefits is not known.

Peebles, ... do you know if there are any studies about the risks of surgery or beyond.
Im feeling that everyone now is going sleeve because the pro's are smaller and maybe its a simpler procedure (proven by the stomach cancer surgery from which it derived) and hence no one is talking about the risks.. and that they would be dead early if they didnt get it. thats the flavor of about 20% of the facebook posts about that recent Sunrise episode.


My interest in this is that a friend of mine had it, I tried to get a hypnotherapist friend to dissuade her but it was too late. Apparently once you book in for a "no obligation" discussion they have every answer to your queries and as long as you find the money . I know sleeve surgery is rife in Western Sydney. Mind you my friend lost tonnes of weight and does look good now but i dont know at what cost. I'm certain she could have use IF instead and now not have to take a sh..t load of nutritional supplements and eat normal meals.

I don't know all that much about the specific surgeries, as I only researched it back when I was getting sick of hearing how "eating low carb will kill you." Apparently there are two documented cases, world-wide where people died as who were eating low carb diets where the diet was blamed, though in one of the cases they were not just eating low carb, they were eating a self-invented starvation diet (which is not how LC is supposed to be done) and died from electrolyte imbalance.

Contrast this with the thousands who have died of WLS, and you have to ask yourself why so many doctors still warn that "low carb diets may be dangerous" while promoting these radical surgeries that have killed so many people. It makes me I wonder what kind of kickbacks some of these family doctors get from the weight loss surgeons.