Fear of COVID-19 fueling increase in bariatric surgeries

[audreyh1]

Interest twist on Covid-19. You’d think it’s nuts, but a study released this month indicates that there is a significant benefit.

Bariatric surgery, considered underused by doctors, is gaining popularity because of COVID-19, both among obese people who have already battled the disease and those who haven’t but want to improve their odds. In Houston and around the country, specialists in the field have reported an increase in procedures and consultations about whether interested parties would make good candidates.

The research already indicates the procedure’s COVID-19 benefits. A Cleveland Clinic study this month showed that obese patients who’d previously had bariatric surgery were 25 percent less likely to be hospitalized and need intensive care than obese patients who hadn’t had the surgery.

Fear of COVID-19 fueling increase in bariatric surgerieshttps://www.houstonchronicle.com/ne...ease-in-bariatric-15759088.php#photo-20318440

Bariatric surgery (and associated fasting) can almost instantly cure chronic metabolic disease. For example - diabetes gone in a few hours, fatty liver cured in a week or two. The astonishing metabolic outcomes from bariatric surgery have driven many of the non-surgical approaches for improving metabolic health used today such as intermittent fasting and temporary severe calorie restriction.

 

[GravitySucks]

Considered underused by doctors?!?
I know 3 people very well that have had bariatric surgery. They all had horrible complications. Two of them came close to dying. I would encourage anyone considering bariatric surgery to seek out a few people that have done it.

 

[stepford]

Considered underused by doctors?!?
I know 3 people very well that have had bariatric surgery. They all had horrible complications. Two of them came close to dying. I would encourage anyone considering bariatric surgery to seek out a few people that have done it.

Agreed. I had a friend who had lap band surgery. They lost weight, but had nasty digestive complications and ultimately had to have the surgery reversed. Not worth it (at least for them) in the long run.

 

[audreyh1]

Considered underused by doctors?!?
I know 3 people very well that have had bariatric surgery. They all had horrible complications. Two of them came close to dying. I would encourage anyone considering bariatric surgery to seek out a few people that have done it.

Yeah, good point. It’s a brutal approach.

As for being underused - that appears to be a common opinion among US doctors. Lots of medical articles are written giving that opinion. https://journals.stfm.org/familymedicine/2019/july-august/dimick-2019-0121/
https://www.soard.org/article/S1550-7289(18)30505-7/fulltext#seccesectitle0002

 

[Calico]

Or you can do it the old-fashioned way

I have a coworker who has always been overweight. I had an MS Teams meeting with her last week and she mentioned that she has lost 40 pounds since our company locked down in March and sent us all home to w#rk! She was concerned about the connection between obesity and Covid so she did something about it. She did it the hard way, by changing her diet and walking.....and walking....and walking.

I am so impressed with her determination and dedication to taking care of her health. And I think I hear my treadmill calling me.

 

[MrsHaloFIRE]

Anecdotes are not data but the one individual I know of that had bariatric surgery died of complications within a few months. Seems like it would be cheaper, easier and lower risk to hire a chef to make your meals and not eat anything else for 6 months. I have a friend who is an inhome chef and will buy groceries and come through and mealprep at your house and leave you isntruction to "remove foil and heat 30 mins at 350." or "add dressing and mix." She has to be cheaper than surgery overall, but health insurance wont cover her services. I guarantee if you ate only what she prepared and she knew your intent to drop weight, you would drop weight and she would balance your macros etc so you wouldnt feel like you were wasting away. But this is America and we want to take a pill or get radical surgery bc it interrupts our lives less.

 

[Amethyst]

I have one (retired) who has lost 100 pounds at age 67! It has taken her a year. She went low-carb and started walking. Every time she lost a size, she'd buy new clothes at the thrift store - they have plenty of dough, but she still shops thrifts, especially knowing she'll be getting rid of those clothes in a few months - and post photos on FB of herself looking better and better.'

She is now running 3 to 5 miles a day. When she posts photos with her daughters, she looks like their sister.

COVID didn't start her dieting, but has been a big incentive.

Her husband has lost weight, too - all that low-carbohydrate food, and not going out to eat.

While bariatric surgery may work for some, to me it sounds terrifying. Taking out whole pieces of your stomach - how can you ever get enough nutrition? Her way is far better.

I have a coworker who has always been overweight. I had an MS Teams meeting with her last week and she mentioned that she has lost 40 pounds since our company locked down in March and sent us all home to w#rk! She was concerned about the connection between obesity and Covid so she did something about it. She did it the hard way, by changing her diet and walking.....and walking....and walking.

I am so impressed with her determination and dedication to taking care of her health. And I think I hear my treadmill calling me.

 

[audreyh1]

Anecdotes are not data but the one individual I know of that had bariatric surgery died of complications within a few months. Seems like it would be cheaper, easier and lower risk to hire a chef to make your meals and not eat anything else for 6 months. I have a friend who is an inhome chef and will buy groceries and come through and mealprep at your house and leave you isntruction to "remove foil and heat 30 mins at 350." or "add dressing and mix." She has to be cheaper than surgery overall, but health insurance wont cover her services. I guarantee if you ate only what she prepared and she knew your intent to drop weight, you would drop weight and she would balance your macros etc so you wouldnt feel like you were wasting away. But this is America and we want to take a pill or get radical surgery bc it interrupts our lives less.

Terrible outcome. And the surgery always seemed barbaric to me.

But hiring a chef would not have solved her problem. When a person is way obese, they usually have severe metabolic health problems, and US medicine has not known how to treat it until now. Current dietary guidelines are actually the worst advice for someone very obese with poor metabolic health, and most doctors don’t know how to treat it. Only a few are successful with patients and their methods are still far out of the mainstream practice of medicine. For a patient with poor metabolic health presumably taking some medications for chronic disease, they really do have to make dietary changes under medical supervision.

 

[Amethyst]

Presumably, though, with the right changes and medical supervision, they could still avoid having surgery.

I have a very obese relative who considered the surgery. Besides being afraid of major surgery (something I can empathize with!) she did her research and learned that forever after, her food intake would be drastically limited (like, half a cup of food per meal) as would the kinds of food she could eat. Many favorites would be off limits for good.

She is very, very particular about food and food is very, very important to her. This is a psychological aspect, which doctors probably don't understand too well.

T For a patient with poor metabolic health presumably taking some medications for chronic disease, they really do have to make dietary changes under medical supervision.

 

[Calico]

I have one (retired) who has lost 100 pounds at age 67! It has taken her a year. She went low-carb and started walking. Every time she lost a size, she'd buy new clothes at the thrift store - they have plenty of dough, but she still shops thrifts, especially knowing she'll be getting rid of those clothes in a few months - and post photos on FB of herself looking better and better.'

She is now running 3 to 5 miles a day. When she posts photos with her daughters, she looks like their sister.

COVID didn't start her dieting, but has been a big incentive.

Her husband has lost weight, too - all that low-carbohydrate food, and not going out to eat.

While bariatric surgery may work for some, to me it sounds terrifying. Taking out whole pieces of your stomach - how can you ever get enough nutrition? Her way is far better.

Very impressive!

 

[Chuckanut]

I know several people who have had bariatric surgery and it has saved their lives. These were people who were vary obese and had found that simple things in life were denied them. It's not like they did not try to lose weight. They did all the stuff they were supposed to do and it didn't work. The surgery was a last ditch attempt to get back to some type of normal life. Don't be so quick to judge.

 

[braumeister]

I know several people who have had barbaric surgery.

Somehow I thought modern medicine had evolved beyond that.

 

[pacergal]

I know of two friends who had bariatric surgery and two who had the lap band.

One lost tons of weight, over time res-tretched her stomach and regained it.
One had severe complications, still does. But lost weight.

The two lap bands have done relatively well, have lost about 40 pounds overall. One has her weight still go up and down.

 

[audreyh1]

Presumably, though, with the right changes and medical supervision, they could still avoid having surgery.

Absolutely! Jason Fung is one resource for learning how bariatric surgery results led many medical researchers to investigate non-surgical methods to achieve the same result, with considerable success. Newcastle University (I think) is another.

 

[Born2BRetd]

I know of three people that had bariatric surgery. All three learned how to eat around the restriction and regained the weight in a few years.

 

[ls99]

Seems to me a thinly veiled sales pitch for the surgery. The cutting business must be slow.

 

[Amethyst]

I was indeed judging the surgery. Not the people. I don't "judge" [i.e. disapprove of] my relative for her reasons for not wanting the surgery.

Honestly, I don't know why this was labeled a "hot" topic. Obesity is an illness. Some illnesses require surgery - there's no question. For others, various treatments must be considered, compared, perhaps tested before the drastic solution of surgery. We talk about those kinds of problems all the time (arthritis, anyone?) and nobody labels it a "hot" topic.

I know several people who have had barbaric surgery and it has saved their lives. These were people who were vary obese and had found that simple things in life were denied them. It's not like they did not try to lose weight. They did all the stuff they were supposed to do and it didn't work. The surgery was a last ditch attempt to get back to some type of normal life. Don't be so quick to judge.

 

[BigNick]

This (like many other "get fit to be better placed if you get COVID" stories) seems like a classic example of "correlation is not causation". Starting to eat green vegetables more often is also good in its own right, but if you are in a risk group after 40 years of cheeseburgers, a month of kale isn't going to reduce those risk factors much.

The logic reminds me a little of the first minute here:

 

[Aerides]

Honestly, I don't know why this was labeled a "hot" topic.

That is the default for new threads in the Covid-sub-forum.

 

[audreyh1]

Honestly, I don't know why this was labeled a "hot" topic.

It was posted in the Covid Containment forum.

 

[Chuckanut]

Somehow I thought modern medicine had evolved beyond that.

You gotta love spell checkers.

 

[badatmath]

Too late in my state. Elective surgeries have been cancelled/postponed.

 

[Amethyst]

Did not think bariatric was considered elective. It's a medical treatment for a serious condition, not a cosmetic one.

Too late in my state. Elective surgeries have been cancelled/postponed.

 

[audreyh1]

Did not think bariatric was considered elective. It's a medical treatment for a serious condition, not a cosmetic one.

Bariatric surgery, like joint replacements, is generally considered elective surgery.

 

[Amethyst]

Well, I just learned something! I think it's too bad.

Bariatric surgery, like joint replacements, is generally considered elective surgery.