Weight-loss surgery can seem like an extreme measure or a get out of jail free card for people who have tried and failed to lose weight through diet and exercise. However, gastrointestinal surgeon Michael Sarr argues that it is not a short cut, but rather a great tool in the reduction of weight-related diseases such as high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, and other health damages associated with obesity. According to Dr. Sarr, surgery is “an attempt to change the anatomy of the digestive system, to prevent people from absorbing too many calories for their metabolism”.
It sounds simple enough, so how is it done? If and when you and your doctor have considered the decision fully, you’ll have four procedures to choose from.
The gastric band is probably the one most people know about and involves putting something like a doughnut around the stomach to create a smaller tube for food to get through. However, this doesn’t mean that you can eat whatever you junk like and it won’t go through, only that your overall food intake is limited.
The Roux-en-Y gastric bypass involves bypassing the stomach and part of the small intestine by creating a stomach pouch and connecting it directly to the middle of your small intestine. Sarr explains ‘It works by decreasing the amount that you can eat, and it works such that you decrease the part of the small intestine where most of the absorption occurs’.
A popular operation now is a sleeve gastrectomy, as there’s no bypass. The stomach is reduced to the size of a man’s thumb, so that very little food can pass through. A duodenal switch biliopancreatic diversion is more complicated. It bypasses 85 per cent of the small intestine and reroutes the flow of bile and pancreatic juices. The surgery limits the fat absorbed by the body, and the amount of time the body spends taking calories from food in the small intestine.
Though the method seems extreme, the results are equally dramatic. Sarr claims that the amount of patients that lose half of their excess body weight is 60 per cent, compared with the 5 per cent of people who manage it through diet and exercise alone. All in all, Sarr says it comes down to the patient’s commitment to wellness through healthy eating and exercise.
