If you are overweight or obese, and have failed multiple diets, then you might be considering surgical treatments that could help you lose the weight and keep it off. Many more Americans are considering various weight loss surgery options because of growing scientific evidence which indicates that being overweight or obese can cause significant health problems later in life such as diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and even osteoarthritis due to the damaging effects that excessive weight has on joints. Some weight loss procedures are purely cosmetic, such as liposuction which removes excessive fat around the abdomen or from other body areas. However, patients will often gain back the weight lost in this way, this is because little has been done to change how the person eats or what makes them feel full after a meal. This is why various surgeries which decrease the size of the stomach can be very effective at producing weight loss for months and years after a person has the surgery. This is because it is believed that an overweight person has stretched their stomach to a large degree, and it takes a large amount of food to fill up their stomach and produce the feeling of having eaten a full meal, called satiety.

Various surgical procedures are available which decrease the size of the stomach and lead to satiety with a smaller meal. Some involve removing part of the stomach, and others involving placing a band around part of the stomach making the functional part of the stomach smaller.

Before getting help from an insurance company to pay for a gastric bypass procedure, you may need to have documented failure with a doctor supervised weight loss program, typically involving diet and exercise. Patients who are more likely to be approved for weight loss surgery, such as gastric bypass, are more likely to be morbidly obese. This is because procedures such as gastric bypass are the only treatment proven to produce long term weight loss for patients who are morbidly obese.

An obese individual is usually classified as having a BMI, or Body Mass Index, greater than 30. There are a variety of websites that you can use to calculate your BMI right now if you know your weight and height. To be eligible for gastric bypass surgery, a type of bariatric surgery that induces weight loss, your BMI should be greater than 40, or only greater than 35 if you have other co-existing conditions such as diabetes, or obstructive sleep apnea which is caused by obesity.

Because people who are obese may have other hidden underlying medical conditions, the preoperative evaluation for weight loss surgery is fairly extensive. Patients who are psychiatrically unable to comply with post-operative treatment guidelines or who have a history of non-compliance with medical directions may be found to be unsuitable for this type of surgery.

Patients should also select a surgeon who performs a large number of weight loss surgeries in each year, often at a reputable weight loss surgery center. This is because the mortality of the weight loss surgery increases when using surgeons who have had less experience with the procedure and caring for these types of patients. The mortality of gastric bypass surgery is generally believed to be about 0.5 percent. This mortality level is thought to be acceptable given the decrease in mortality and quality of life that many morbidly obese patients would experience without the surgery.

There are also a variety of postoperative complications and effects of bariatric surgery that the patient who is undergoing weight loss surgery should know. These include a decreased ability to absorb certain nutrients such as vitamins, calcium, iron and folate. Most patients will have to have Vitamin B12 supplements for life, in addition to taking a variety of other vitamins and nutrients.

However, most patients will consider these concessions worthy trade offs for the expected weight reduction gained from gastric bypass surgery. Morbidly obese patients who were diabetic may even no longer require diabetes medication after they have lost enough weight, usually this occurs around eleven years after the surgery.

Weight Loss Without Surgery

Because there are a large number of weight loss reduction surgeries, future clinical trials will try to compare the differences between the procedures in terms of complications and effectiveness. Newer procedures attempt to stimulate the nerves in the stomach into tricking the brain into believing that it is full without having to actually surgically remove part of the stomach to achieve the same result. While no sufficiently effective medical therapy exists for morbidly obese patients, the discovery of leptin, a hormone which appears to signal the brain when a person has had enough to eat, may find use in clinical practice and become an option for morbidly obese patients who are considering weight loss surgery.

In the following video you can see the show Health Matters with some good information on gastric bypass surgery. Watch this video if you want all the facts.