Well, Canadians are losing the battle of the bulge as well… But we have government assistance in the form of free Health Care to solve the problem.
Body fat, once considered a cosmetic issue and viewed as a personal flaw, is beginning to be seen as a chronic illness, but some say family physicians are ill-equipped to treat it because they don’t have the time, training or resources.
And so, in the midst of an epidemic where almost half of all Ontarians are overweight or obese, the province is woefully underprepared to tackle the problem. “We have to look at obesity as a disease,” said Klein. “We have no problem treating gallbladder problems or cancer. We have to treat them all the same.”
Surgery is more effective than any other weight loss method, said the doctor, who has been performing bariatric surgeries for four years at Humber River Regional Hospital.
“Patients who have surgery are much more likely to be alive with surgery than without.”
While the cost for the surgery is a lot less on society than the cost of the continuation of the treatment for heart disease, diabetes and other illnesses associated with obesity, I do find the consequence of the surgery somewhat ironic.
But life after bariatric surgery won’t be easy. Chaaya may have to forgo her favourite foods and she likely won’t be able to drink alcohol because her new stomach will metabolize it differently. She’ll also need a daily protein shake, eat nutritious meals and take vitamin supplements, because the surgeons have bypassed the upper portion of the small intestine, called the duodenum, where nutrients from food are absorbed.
Shouldn’t she have done that from the start? Maybe some Clockwork Orange style conditioning would be better?
Here’s a fun fact for you: in Brazil, the Public Health System will only pay for the stomach surgery if a person is morbidly obese.
So guess what? Obese people are trying to gain weight so they can qualify for the free surgery. I actually know people who made an effort to gain 40 pounds in order to qualify.
When it gets to that point, obesity is no longer the worst problem those people have.
I find much of what is posted by people who don’t actually have to deal with the problem of obesity is along the lines of “Hey fattie, just shut your mouth instead of stuffing it full of food all the time.” This demonstrates not only a lack of knowledge about the subject, but an unwillingness to learn anything further about it, since the person already “knows” how to fix the problem. As a morbidly obese person who is getting the gastric bypass surgery soon I’d point anyone who has an interest in knowing about the issue to watch a recent PBS program called “Fat: What No One is Telling You.” Among the topics they addressed in the show is recent findings by researchers of a highly advanced nervous system in the gut. The researcher said it was almost like a secondary brain, and speculation is that appetite is actually controlled from here. While the gastric bypass procedure limits the amount of food a person can eat, it also has the side effect of drastically reducing a person’s appetite. It is speculated that this is the result of cutting a nerve that gets cut during the bypass operation, and there is research into finding a way to disable this nerve without surgery. In the meantime, the researcher believes that the cutting of the nerve has a more significant impact on the surgery than the resizing of the stomach pouch. There’s a lot more interesting information available about the gastric bypass procedure and losing weight available out there without resorting to “zip your pie hole Tubby!”.
2,
Why does that sound suspiciously like an excuse? Like ADD in children these days. Why are there so many more morbidly obese in NA these days? Has the stomach brain evolved in the past twenty years? Even when I was a kid in grade school / high school, the obese people were few and far between… Everyone else was pretty much the same shape. Some more fit, some less so. Why is it so different now? Why are the biggest asses in NA?
Hope your surgery is uneventful. I’ve been under the knife before, and it’s never a happy feeling.
I’m not going to judge the people who have gotten or are considering getting bariatric surgery. If that’s what they need to get themselves to a healthier weight, good for them for taking the initiative.
3,
Nope, not an excuse. I am what I am. I certainly don’t feel a need to justify myself to nameless, faceless people on a blog. What I was trying to do is be up front and to say that those knee jerk responses to the obesity issue make the people saying them look like fools in the face of new knowledge that is being discovered now. I will freely admit that this is a self-inflicted problem for me. But since I’ve been trying to become more healthy I’ve found that the treatment (for me) is not as simple as getting to this point was in the first place. I think that looking at resources such as the PBS show allow for a more balanced view of what’s going on. From personal experience, the one thing I will confirm and staunchly defend is that it’s not as simple as it seems from the point of view of someone who hasn’t experienced it for themselves (similar to any health problem).
Hey fatty, quit crying and put some food in your mouth. It will make you feel better.
I think the Starvation Diet is a great solution. It’s cheap, fast, & effective.
Well, at least there are alternatives for the obese; I regret to say there is no surgery for stupidity
(1) Exercise regularly and (2) eat a balanced diet. They go hand in hand.
For obese people, this entails a complete change of lifestyle. That’s the part which makes it difficult. A lifestyle change is a mental battle more than anything else. It basically means changing your entire identity. This is the hardest thing in the world. But you have to make up your mind: do you want to change or do you not?
Talking about brain-stomachs, nerve-cutting, etc. may sound reassuring, but it’s all bullshit. To even think along those lines is proof that you are in a mental battle, and you are just procrastinating your decision. You are a bright person. There is only one decision to make: a lifestyle decision. You either want to change, or you don’t.
Stop trying to “understand” your problem, because that IS your problem. If you leave a comment here arguing back at me, you are just procrastinating further. If you feel sorry for yourself, you are just procrastinating further. All part of the mental battle.
A Clockwork Orange style of brainwashing would be the only way I could stop eating whatever I want. See you can learn things from movies, LOL. I was thinking the other day when I was working out and looking at all these college kids running themselves to death and lifting like 2 to 3 times their body weight and thinking at what point is it not trying to be healthy and becomes some sort of weird ubermensch style of living? When does an average person ever need to run for 8hrs without sweating or lifting 300+ pounds or running a mile in no time? I think there should be some deliniation between being healthy and being an ubermensch. Most of the images we see are those of people who are taking their bodies way too far.
John Candy said it best in the film “Stripes”…
“The doctor said I swallow a lot of anger…. and a lot of pizzas”.
#9,
Stop trying to “understand” your problem, because that IS your problem. If you leave a comment here arguing back at me, you are just procrastinating further.
No, the problem is excess weight. Your response reminds me of the old response to mental illness, “buck up, get over it”. Medical science has shown the link between various chemicals and reactions in the brain and several mental illnesses. The suggestion that there is also a link between overeating and the brain is worthy of study. The blatant tossing it off as “all in your head” bullshit is typical of ignorant, selfish, conceited, narcissists and pseudo intellects.
Many morbidly obese people have actually shedded pounds _too fast_ by changing their lifestyle, as was noted my #9. I’m sorry, but Ralph you’re only making excuses for yourself.
Squiggy, Ralph, Jacob –
Do you mind if I ask you how many pounds you have lost in your lifetime? Sure, you can argue that becoming obese is avoidable… but why do you judge someone who is already obese for using surgical means for reducing his/her weight? (For the record, I have never been obese per the BMI index.)
I have a friend whose Mother is thinking of having the surgury. Her Doctors told her she will have to go through an 8 month course of counseling before the surgury. During that time they also require her to be on a diet prescribed by them and MUST NOT gain any weight during the 8 months or no surgury. They will only be able to eat 4 ounces of food every so many hours after the surgury, so they are put on a diet that is about the same as they will be on after.
The therapy apparently teaches them basically to change their whole outlook on food and self image.
I also have an online friend from the Netherlands who weighed 680 pounds. After trying every diet known to man, his Doctors decided he needed bypass surgury(gastric) but where afraid to do it because of his weight. So they placed a balloon into his stomach that wouldn’t allow him to eat more than a few ounces of food about 4 times a day, and lots of vitamins and supplements. He lost 128 pounds in 8 months, allowing them to do the bypass surgury. Since the surgury he has lost another 100 pounds in 5 months.
The balloon treatment is not covered by any insurance in this country yet(including medicare and state funded medical coverage), but is available for someone who will pay for it themselves.
#13, Jacob
Many can. But then they gain it right back. More important, many can’t. Several posts have pointed out that they, or someone else, have tried almost every diet known to man to little or no avail.
I don’t know the answer. I suspect that there is something in the processed food supply that tricks the brain into wanting to eat more. If bariatric surgery has some success then great.
#14, Frank,
I personally am maybe 25 to 35 lbs over my preferred weight. I was 185 at age 25 and physically active. Thirty years later I am about 240 and much more sedentary. I have never been on a diet.
Ooops, sorry Ralph, I included your name in error in my previous post. It should have just been to Squiggy and Jacob.