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Obesity Health

Severe obesity is a very chronic condition that is extremely hard to treat, for the person suffering from severe obesity sometimes surgery to restrict food intake and therefore aid in weight reduction is the only option left available.

How digestion works

When food moves along the digestive tract digestive juices and enzymes arrive at the right place to digest and absorb calories and nutrients. When we chew and swallow food it moves down the oesophagus to the stomach where a strong acid continues with the digestive process.

Our stomach can hold roughly 3 pints of food and when the contents of the stomach move down to the duodenum which is the first segment in the small intestine bile and pancreatic juices help speed up the digestive process; this is where most of the iron and calcium is absorbed.

The remaining two segments of the small intestine complete the absorption of almost all the calories and nutrients. Any food particles that can’t be digested in the small intestine are stored in the large intestine until eliminated.

How does surgery promote weight loss?

The use of gastric surgery as an aid to helping obese patients came after results from cancer patients who had a tendency to lose weight after the operation, this operation involves parts of the stomach or small intestine being removed.

For the treatment of obesity through surgery surgeons now use techniques that produce weight loss by limiting how much the stomach can hold. There are two main types of surgery used to help promote weight loss in an obese person.

Restrictive surgery

This type of surgery is used to make the stomach smaller, a part of the stomach is either removed or closed off which limits the amount of food it can hold and therefore makes you feel full.

Malabsorptive surgery

Digestion and absorption takes place in the small intestine, so this type of surgery is used to shorten the length of the small intestine at the point where it connects to the stomach. This then limits the amount of food that is completely digested or absorbed.

What are the benefits and risks?

Benefits

The main benefit is rapid weight loss following the surgery and for 18 to 24 months after the procedure, some patients will start to regain a little of the weight lost but few ever regain it all.

Conditions relating to obesity also improve for example those patients that developed diabetes found that blood sugar levels returned to normal following the surgery.

Side effects

Vomiting is a common side effect of restrictive surgery and patients very often develop nutritional deficiencies such as anaemia. More than one third of obese people who had restrictive surgery developed gallstones and other common side effects such as dizziness, nausea and excessive sweating.

Any type of surgery for obesity isn’t taken lightly and you will have to prove to your Doctor that you have tried all other methods to lose weight before he/she will even consider surgery an option.

For the majority of obese people greater efforts towards losing weight should be made with changes in eating habits, lifestyle and physical activity, this is a more appropriate long term solution and one the Doctor will usually recommend first.