Home
>
Weight Loss
>
A New Option for Weight Loss Surgery

A New Option for Weight Loss Surgery

These days, Jennifer Secrist has little interest in idle activities. The 23-year-old loves to rock climb, hike, ride her mountain bike, and do almost anything that gets her outside and moving.

"I can't stand to sit around," she tells WebMD. "I have so much energy now it's amazing."

Weight Loss Surgery
---------------------------------------------------
Her secret: weight loss surgery that leaves her with a smaller stomach while leaving her with smaller scars than the traditional surgery. What makes Secrist's story truly amazing is that in less than two years she has lost 107 pounds, thanks to adjustable gastric banding, a surgical procedure that is commonly performed in Europe, but has only been recently approved for use the U.S.

The surgery can be performed laparoscopically, which means small tools are guided by a small camera through small incisions in the abdomen. The traditional weight loss procedure in the U.S., gastric bypass, involves a large incision to surgically alter the stomach and make it smaller. The Midland, Mich. woman traveled to Sweden to get the surgery, and her mom and dad later made the trip for the same reason.

Adjustable Gastric Banding
-----------------------------------------
Adjustable gastric banding is far less popular here than gastric bypass surgery. Banding has been done in the U.S., yet previously required open surgery, with all its potential complications.

But two new studies find the laparoscopic approach for banding to be a safe and effective weight loss option for people who are 100 pounds or more overweight. The studies, reported in the latest issue of the journal Annals of Surgery, found that patients who underwent gastric banding surgery lost roughly 50% of their excess body weight within two years.

The procedure involves the implantation of a hollow silicone band placed around the top of the stomach, which is adjusted to determine how much food the stomach can hold. The adjustment is made by inflating or deflating the band using salt water piped in trough a tube attached to a port placed under the skin near the breastbone. Several types of bands are available in Europe, but the FDA has approved only one - the Lap-Band system made by the California firm BioEnterics System.

One of the newly published studies evaluated the Lap-Band device in 500 morbidly obese French patients. Researcher Franck Zinzindohoue, MD, and colleagues reported a 53% excess weight loss at two years, with 10% of patients having to have second operations due to complications. No deaths were reported among the patients. The outcomes were much better than those reported in a recent study finding that more than half of patients abandoned the band in favor of gastric bypass surgery.

The authors attribute their good outcome to a procedure they developed to reduce the incidence of band slippage, one of the most common complications of gastric banding.

Some Patients Are Unhappy Because They Did Not Loose As Much Weight As They Wanted
-------------------------------------
Still, in an accompanying editorial, weight loss surgeon John M. Kellum, MD, says surgeons in America may want to think twice before recommending gastric band surgery over gastric bypass. He no longer performs gastric banding, and says most of his patients who had the banding procedure were unhappy with it because they did not lose as much weight as they had hoped to.

"Some of my patients actually gained weight, which never happens with gastric bypass," he tells WebMD. "We were also troubled by the fairly high number of patients who had complications with the band." Kellum says a newer type of band from Sweden may be safer for patients than the Lap-Band, but it has not been studied in the U.S.

In the second new study, authors claimed a lower rate of band erosion and slippage. But the procedure is not recommended for all patients, especially the heaviest, which Kellum says could restrict its usefulness among American patients.

"American patients tend to be heavier than those in Europe, and the heavier the patient the higher the likelihood that complications will occur," he says.

Jennifer Secrist, who now weighs 140 pounds and is a size 6, says she knows of a few gastric band patients, or "bandsters," who have had trouble losing weight with the procedure. But she would not hesitate to recommend it to anyone whose health is jeopardized by morbid obesity. She publishes a web journal of her process to inspire others.

"I want people to know there are alternatives to being heavy," she says. "This has done so much for me. I can't begin to describe it."

You may reprint or publish this article free of charge as long as the bylines are included.

Original URL (The Web version of the article)
------------
a new option for weight loss surgery

About The Author
----------------
Michael Lewis has been collecting articles and information on Weight Loss and HGH (Human Growth Hormone and related health benefits. He has created and edits numerous web sites about this subject. Michael is a staff writer for a new option for weight loss surgery and several otherwebsites. If you would like to contact Michael you can e-mail him at a new option for weight loss surgery If you would like to know more about Weight Loss, HGH (Human Growth Hormone) and related health topics please visit us at a new option for weight loss surgery.

express cleaning service Arlington Heights ..

In The News:

The Fox News AI Newsletter gives readers the latest AI technology advancements, covering the challenges and opportunities AI presents.

ChatGPT data breach exposes personal info of users through partner Mixpanel. OpenAI confirms names, emails compromised in security incident.

Android rolls out Emergency Live Video for 911 calls, letting dispatchers see real-time scenes during emergencies. Great for holiday travel safety.

Malicious Chrome and Edge extensions collected browsing history, keystrokes and personal data from millions of users before Google and Microsoft removed them.

Google's new Call Reason feature lets Android users mark calls as urgent before dialing, displaying an urgent label to recipients using Phone by Google app.

Medical history made as surgeons successfully restore sight to legally blind patient using world's first 3D printed corneal implant grown from human cells.

Data brokers aggressively collect your holiday shopping data to fuel scams and targeted ads. Learn how to delete your digital profile before 2025 starts.

Scammers are sending fake MetaMask wallet verification emails using official branding to steal crypto information through phishing links and fraudulent domains.

Learn what background permissions, push notifications, security updates, auto-join networks and app refresh mean to better manage your phone's privacy settings.

Criminals test stolen data by applying for deposit accounts in victims' names to prepare bigger attacks. Learn why banks won't share fraud details.

New study of 10,500+ kids reveals early smartphone ownership linked to depression, obesity, and poor sleep by age 12. Earlier phones mean higher risks.

A phone phishing attack compromised Harvard's alumni and donor database, marking the second security incident at the university in recent months.

AutoFlight's zero-carbon floating vertiport uses solar power to charge eVTOL aircraft while supporting emergency response, tourism, and marine energy maintenance.

A new phone return scam targets recent buyers with fake carrier calls. Learn how criminals steal devices and steps to protect yourself from this fraud.

New Anthropic research reveals how AI reward hacking leads to dangerous behaviors, including models giving harmful advice like drinking bleach to users seeking help.

The Fox News AI Newsletter gives readers the latest AI technology advancements, covering the challenges and opportunities AI presents.

Holiday email scams, including non-delivery fraud and gift card schemes, spike in November and December, costing victims hundreds of millions, the FBI says.

Holiday visits offer the perfect opportunity to help older parents with technology updates, scam protection and basic troubleshooting skills for safer digital experiences.

Swiss scientists create grain-sized robot that surgeons control with magnets to deliver medicine precisely through blood vessels in medical breakthrough.

Researchers exploited WhatsApp's API vulnerability to scrape 3.5 billion phone numbers. Learn how this massive data breach happened and protect yourself.

Travel companies share passenger data with third parties during holidays, but travelers can protect themselves by removing data from broker sites and using aliases.

Xpeng's humanoid robot moves so realistically that crowds believed it was fake, marking a major advancement in robotics technology ahead of 2026 commercial launch.

Researchers discover phishing scam using invisible characters to evade email security, with protection tips including password managers and two-factor authentication.

iPhone and Android users can reduce battery drain and data usage by restricting Background App Refresh to Wi-Fi connections instead of mobile networks.

Scammers nearly stole an Apple account by exploiting the support system with authentic-looking tickets and phone calls, users can protect themselves with safety steps.