Lap-Band Critics Decry Excess Rhetoric on Weight
source: http://www.womensenews.org/story/medicine/110118/lap-band-critics-decry-excess-rhetoric-weight
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- Womens_eNews
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From NBC's reality television show "The Biggest Loser" to the first lady's campaign against childhood obesity, the battle of the bulge is being waged on all fronts, including the operating table.
The Lap-Band, a surgically-implanted device that cinches the stomach and drastically restricts food intake, has been touted as a vital weapon in the "war on obesity" by some health researchers and bariatric surgeons. Approximately 80 percent of those who elect for the Lap-Band are women.
Last month, a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel recommended lowering the eligibility threshold for this elective weight loss surgery, from a body mass index (or BMI) of 35 to a BMI of 30 if an existing health issue such as diabetes is present. (BMI is calculated using a National Institute of Health formula, based on weight and height. Someone who is 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighs 160 pounds, for instance, has a BMI of 25.8.)
The recommendation comes at a time when many are growing deeply concerned about the negative affects of weight loss surgery, including possibly high suicide rates after the procedure.
For Eric Oliver, the FDA panel's nod to the procedure is troubling.
"What I worry about is, to what extent is bariatric surgery becoming a form of cosmetic surgery?" said Oliver, a political science professor at the University of Chicago and author of the 2005 book "Fat Politics: The Real Story behind America's Obesity Epidemic."
Oliver challenges conventional wisdom about the correlation between weight and health with a simple yet provocative idea: Being thin doesn't necessarily make you healthier.
While Americans have undeniably been getting heavier over the past 20 years, Oliver suggests that our nation's weight gain isn't due to an underlying obesity "disease," but because of fundamental changes in lifestyle and eating habits.
Lap-Band is the only general surgery that is currently advertised, making it more widespread--and lucrative--than other non-elective surgical procedures that offer no cosmetic benefits. (You'd never get your gallbladder or appendix removed unless you absolutely had to, right?)
http://www.womensenews.org/story/medicine/110118/lap-band-critics-decry-excess-r...
The Lap-Band, a surgically-implanted device that cinches the stomach and drastically restricts food intake, has been touted as a vital weapon in the "war on obesity" by some health researchers and bariatric surgeons. Approximately 80 percent of those who elect for the Lap-Band are women.
Last month, a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel recommended lowering the eligibility threshold for this elective weight loss surgery, from a body mass index (or BMI) of 35 to a BMI of 30 if an existing health issue such as diabetes is present. (BMI is calculated using a National Institute of Health formula, based on weight and height. Someone who is 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighs 160 pounds, for instance, has a BMI of 25.8.)
The recommendation comes at a time when many are growing deeply concerned about the negative affects of weight loss surgery, including possibly high suicide rates after the procedure.
For Eric Oliver, the FDA panel's nod to the procedure is troubling.
"What I worry about is, to what extent is bariatric surgery becoming a form of cosmetic surgery?" said Oliver, a political science professor at the University of Chicago and author of the 2005 book "Fat Politics: The Real Story behind America's Obesity Epidemic."
Oliver challenges conventional wisdom about the correlation between weight and health with a simple yet provocative idea: Being thin doesn't necessarily make you healthier.
While Americans have undeniably been getting heavier over the past 20 years, Oliver suggests that our nation's weight gain isn't due to an underlying obesity "disease," but because of fundamental changes in lifestyle and eating habits.
Lap-Band is the only general surgery that is currently advertised, making it more widespread--and lucrative--than other non-elective surgical procedures that offer no cosmetic benefits. (You'd never get your gallbladder or appendix removed unless you absolutely had to, right?)
http://www.womensenews.org/story/medicine/110118/lap-band-critics-decry-excess-r...
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bailey78
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They have a cure for Obesity it's called eat the right foods and Move your ass more. I see it every week on the TV they are loseing weight at most every weight in. eat less move more thats something EVERY BODY CAN DO!!
- 1 year ago
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bailey78
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Swisher
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"Rhetoric on weight", yes, but how about good old intelligence in eating, moderation, exercise? We're all getting fat for a reason and it is not beyond our control.
- 1 year ago
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Swisher
