August 12th, 2010
One in four adults in the UK are classified as obese and this is costing the NHS £500 million a year.
A gastric band limits the amount a person can eat by restricting the stomach. Regular follow up with a range of health professionals is recommended for two years. Psychological counselling should be offered to patients along with a full discussion of the risks involved.
Celebrities who have had the surgery include Fern Britton, Sharon Osbourne and Vanessa Feltz.
The Daily Record
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This article makes it sound as if the NHS are spending £500m on gastric bands. They are not. The gastric band and gastric balloon can only account for a tiny percentage of this.
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July 22nd, 2010
Sharon Mevsimler was given a gastric bypass operation in 2008 and had lost weight. After gaining her weight back she has been fitted with a gastric band. The 40 year old is five feet tall and weighs between 40 and 45 stone.
Her weight puts so much pressure on her heart and lungs she is permanently hooked up to an oxygen tank to help her breathe. She is receiving round-the-clock care after becoming the biggest person ever to be fitted with a gastric band.
Total Essex
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This is such a sad story. So many people regain weight after gastric bypass surgery. It’s a shame she wasn’t given a gastric band in the first place but there is no guarantee that this will work for her either. Unless she is willing to comply with the advice she is given and alter her eating habits to accommodate her band, she is likely to fail.
Note on 11th August 2010
Sadly, after we included this article, Sharon died in hospital.
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July 22nd, 2010
Following her recent gastric band operation Vanessa Feltz has already lost 20lbs.
Vanessa spoke about her gastric band op on This Morning when she revealed she was back at work just two days after surgery. Speaking about her decision to have the gastric band fitted, Feltz said she wanted to be open and honest about having the procedure done, although it felt peculiar telling the truth about something so intimate.
She said “I haven’t been able to do it myself. I’ve lost the same five stone four times in ten years and the effort of losing it is so enormous and the pleasure of having lost it is so great, so why did I keep putting the weight back on again?”
Daily Mail
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Good for you Vanessa and we wish you success with your gastric band. This time you can lose your weight and keep it off.
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July 21st, 2010
GP’s in the East Riding have been asked not to refer patients for weight loss surgery. Instead, people are being told to try other methods of losing weight.
Dawn Branton, public health obesity lead at NHS East Riding of Yorkshire, has admitted that the move is linked to cuts in funding. It is felt that it is cheaper to provide a weight management service than to provide an operation for a patient.
Options available to those people removed from the NHS list, include a six month programme of physical activity, good nutrition and psychological support. Officials said the cases of the people removed from the list could be reviewed, depending on their progress with the weight management service.
The Mail
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This is ridiculous. Anyone who has been accepted on to a waiting list for bariatric surgery has tried diets, exercise and numerous other ways to lose weight in the past. They have failed at these attempts. That is why they are on the NHS waiting list!
Many people cannot afford to source their treatment privately. Is it yet another failure of the NHS system that it costs over £8000 to fit a gastric band, when private centres charge far less? And why doesn’t the NHS provide the gastric balloon as a financially viable alternative?
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July 21st, 2010
Britain’s heaviest woman lives in Essex and weighs 45 stone. The woman, who has not been named, needs 24 hour medical care. She underwent a gastric bypass but developed complications. She now weighs just a stone less than the world’s heaviest woman who is from New Jersey, USA.
The world’s heaviest man, 48 year old David Hone of Croydon, was 61 stone when he died of a heart attack. The previous world’s fattest man was Paul Mason who lost 20 stone after hitting a peak of 70 stone.
Telegraph
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What is going on here? Why are the heaviest people in the world living in the UK? Quite frankly, we have no idea. Wouldn’t it be a better solution for the NHS to offer bariatric surgery, including gastric bands, before things spiral out of control in this way? And what about the gastric balloon – no anaesthetic, no surgery and lower risk.
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July 21st, 2010
Imagine the scene. It’s after dinner and you are already full. Then someone puts a luscious chocolate confection in front of you. The sight and the smell and even the word “cake” stimulate the reward and pleasure circuits of the brain. These reactions mask the signals from the stomach that tell you that your dinner is not yet digested and you are already full.
Scientists are now using sophisticated brain imaging technology to understand how the lure of food can overwhelm the body’s built-in mechanism to regulate hunger and fullness. This is called ‘hedonic’ versus ‘homeostatic’ eating. One thing is clear. Obese people react much more hedonistically to sweet and fat laden foods than healthy weight people do.
In a study presented at the International Conference on Obesity in Stockholm, researchers showed pictures of high calorie, fat laden foods to ten obese women and ten non-obese women and monitored their brain reactions on MRI scans. In the obese women, the images triggered a strong response in the ventral tegmental area. This is a tiny spot in the mid brain where dopamine, the ‘desire’ chemical is released.
When obese people see high-calorie food, a network of brain areas involved in reward, attention, emotion and memory are activated. The areas communicate with each other, making it very hard to resist. Similar reactions occurred in the obese subjects when they heard the words “chocolate brownie” – but not when they heard about lower calorie foods such as cabbage and carrot.
If you are of normal weight, your homeostatic mechanisms are controlling this area of the brain. In the overweight group, there is some sort of dysfunction in the homeostatic signal. Studies have found that a diet of sweet, high fat foods can blunt the body’s built in fullness signals.
Wall Street Journal
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Interesting. Looks like the neuroscientists might finally be the people to discover the answer to the problem of obesity. But how many years will it take? In the meantime, we have not found a better, more successful method of weight loss and weight maintenance than the gastric balloon and the gastric band.
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June 23rd, 2010
Obese patients demonstrate not only better physical health but also improved psychological health a year after gastric banding, a new study shows.
Gastric banding, also called the Lap Band, is minimally invasive weight loss surgery.
Twenty five patients who all had a body mass index that classified them as morbidly obese, completed psychological testing prior to surgery and six and twelve months after surgery. The tests measured depression, general anxiety, social anxiety and quality of life.
In comparison with before surgery they showed significant improvement in all areas. Gastric band also significantly reduces BMI and controls blood sugar levels.
“The results are evidence that one year after gastric banding psychological health improves along with physiological health” said study co-author Andrew Johnson MD of Southmead Hospital, Bristol.
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Obesity can affect people psychologically in many different ways. Confidence, self esteem and quality of life will all improve following weight loss with a gastric band or a gastric balloon.
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June 16th, 2010
Juliana Heron weighed 23 stone when she decided to have a gastric band fitted. The 61 year old grandmother faced a daily battle with obesity and had tried everything to lose weight. When she was told she was only months away from her knees giving out from the strain, she finally took the step of asking for help. She said “I was told that unless I lost some weight I would be in a wheelchair within a year. I had high blood pressure, the beginning of diabetes and was in agony with my knees.”
After her weight loss surgery she quickly saw results and trimmed down to a healthy 10 stone. She said “Although choosing to have the surgery was one of the best choices in my life. I still had to change years of bad habits. It’s not an easy option. You have to put the effort in and realise that this is a last resort and a lifeline.”
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Another gastric band – another success story! Juliana is right when she says it is not an easy option. You must be prepared to put in a lot of effort but the results are certainly worth it.
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June 14th, 2010
From 2007 to 2009 Buckinghamshire health chiefs spent £600,000 on weight loss surgery for 69 patients.
NHS bosses defended the move by saying that surgery will reduce weight and also reduce the risk of illness from other conditions caused by having been obese.
Weight loss surgery must be approved by a hospital doctor and the person must have a body mass index of 50, about 25 stone. Of the 69 patients who had weight loss surgery 57 were aged between 40 and 50 and the youngest was 17.
The procedures include gastric band, gastric by-pass and gastrectomies.
Matthew Elliott, CEO of the TaxPayers Alliance said that treatments that allow overweight people to ignore responsibility for their own health are being prioritised when resources are scarce.
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It’s the same old argument. NHS money spent on a gastric band or gastric balloon could spare the possible NHS spend on that patient in the future.
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June 14th, 2010
A misconception about the gastric balloon is that it is a temporary measure for weight loss. The majority of patients lose a significant amount of weight while their gastric balloon is in place but fear that once it is removed they will return to old habits and re-gain their weight. If the gastric balloon was the only piece of the jigsaw this may be the case.
At the National Obesity Surgery Centre we understand that the 12 month support programme is an integral part of the gastric balloon experience. Whilst the gastric balloon teaches some extremely valuable lessons and assists with rapid weight loss, the support programme will help you to develop a new way of thinking about food and eating. The problems of yo-yo dieting can be behind you once and for all.
As part of your life with the gastric balloon and afterwards, we promote the idea of a healthy, balanced, nutritious way of eating. We don’t believe in fad diets, liquid diets, meal replacements or cutting out any food groups. We do believe that you have the right to feel confident and healthy and to lead a very full life.
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