Posted on 06/16/2009 8:17:46 PM PDT by wintertime
Last year, 200,000 Americans had weight loss surgery and while gastric bypass surgery can significantly reduce weight, the surgery comes with risks.
Now a procedure that was once commonly used to treat ulcers is being tested as a safe alternative to weight loss surgery.
Action News reporter Kimberly Tere has the details.
The vagus nerve controls your feeling of hunger.
Some even say every single thing the vagus nerve does is designed to make you gain weight.
That is why San Francisco Doctor Robert Lustig is testing laparoscopic vagotomy, a surgery in which the vagus nerve is cut.
Cutting the vagus nerve can reduce the amount of fat stored in the body and can increase energy levels.
"Every patient in the study said their hunger was gone, just gone. One comment I got from one patient was this is the first time in her life that she was not a prisoner to food," said Dr. Lustig.
Yes, but it's being advertised heavily to the general public. To put the risk of death in perspective, undergoing gastric bypass has about the same fatality rate as driving a motorcycle for 100 million miles. That would take the average motorist 8,333 years to accomplish. Many people thinking about gastric bypass wouldn't consider driving a motorcycle 1 mile. The advertising promoting this procedure should be reigned in. This is something only a doctor should know about as a possible option of last resort.
We have lost some Freepers to this procedure.
“You are correct. I never (ever) get hungry. I eat based on my perceived requirements. I am thin and have a fast metabolism. “
-—<>-—<>-—<>-—<>-—<>-—
This is me, too. However, all the rest does not apply to me at all. I live just fine on a pizza and beer diet, with potato chips and dip and hotdogs thrown in for variety. I do not eat that much of anything, though. I can go for a day or two before realizing that I’ve not had any kind of “meal” at all.
Maybe I have a dysfunctional vagus nerve...
Hey! Should I apply for SNOBama Disability?
A guy I knew died from complications after gastric bypass surgery.
I have lost about 110. Keeping it off has been a challenge, but so far, so good. I am usually hungry as well. Although sometimes it’s more emotional than physical, ie. stress eating or boredom eating. I have to do a lot of exercise and not eat a lot to maintain.
Remember that Atkins adds carbs gradually but the carbs added are only those LOW on the glycemic index. This is an important element. You can’t add potatoes, rice, bread until the very end.
I love Atkins and my doctor [who is a cardiologist at Cedars-Sinai] suggested I try it.
I love barbecued food so I grill twice a week. I barbecue meats plus asparagus, halved zucchini and red peppers.
Another issue is that we lose muscle as we age. So if you are the same weight at 60 as you are at 20, you have considerably more fat. Muscle mass is imperative to keeping weight off. A 20 year old and a 60 year old, weighing the same, lose at different rates because the older person has less muscle. As a result, exercising is more important. My fav is walking in the hills around my house.
Some even say every single thing the vagus nerve does is designed to make you gain weight.I haven't the vagus idea whether this is true or not, but probably worth reading about it. Thanks neverdem.
Here's a Freeper no longer with us because of this surgery: Prayer Needs: TexasFlower has passed away
A couch potato burns about 1800 cals/day just watching Judge Mathis and Oprah. ie just to survive. Bigger people burn more cals just laying around, there's more to operate
A pound is 3800 calories.
Neutral weight is around 2000 calories based upon these figures. 3800 - 1800 = 2000
Any day more than 2000 adds weight, anything under 2000 takes it away.
Suppose a person eats 1600 per day (losing 400 k/c each day), you must to do that for 9 days to lose a pound. (400*9)-
OH a quarter-pounder with cheese meal, fries, drink equal 1200 calories, 1600 isnt an easy nut to cut.
That sounds reasonable but it's not completely that simple. The Atkin's Advantage is: proteins and fat take more effort and energy for the body to use than sugar/carbohydrates, its lazy preference. Force your body to process mainly the first 2 and you can eat substantially more calories. As a bonus: you never feel hungry because your blood sugar is not on a roller coaster.
Its all about the calories.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
So?....This is news?
For those fighting fat, its all about hunger. Believe me.
First I do need to disclose my surgery was to correct a previous botched surgery to correct emergency surgery needed because my duodenal ulcer perforated. At the time of the first surgery I weighed 105 lbs.
The second surgery (June ‘06) was done to correct the first surgery. They performed a rouen-Y (commonly known as bariatric surgery), vagotomy where they only cut it halfway as well as tightening of the esophagus directly above where it feeds into the stomach. When I went into surgery this time I weighed 106 lbs.
Your life will consist of thinking about food almost continuously because in order to get some of the nutrients your body needs, you'll need to eat 6 small meals a day. A vagotomy isn't going to help you with your feelings of hunger and thoughts about food.
Most gastro patients who go in for weight loss have more stomach removed than I did. I only had 25% removed instead of the 2/3rd’s they originally anticipated.
I realize I started out with my weight being proportionate to my height so a couple of the symptoms I've experienced won't be one’s you can expect to experience.
You will however have to take more vitamins than normal people because your body won't be able to digest and use
nutrients found in foods. I give myself weekly injections of B-12. After every meal I'm supposed to lay down for a minimum time frame of 15 minutes in order to help relieve the pressure food puts on my digestive tract.
From what was explained to me, the vagus nerve is part of the internal organs which help with acid reflux. They cut mine halfway because of the horrendous amounts of acid being released into my stomach which was causing the acids to literally eat away at my stomach. The acid reflux also caused a condition known as Barrett's esophagus. Mine was level 3 which is pre-cancerous.
I am in no way saying your experience will parallel mine, I am simply relating what has been my experience.
I no longer have acid indigestion.
I have constant nausea and phenegran is my newest best friend and has been ever since I had the surgery in June, 2006.
Even though I no longer have acid indigestion I must take 2 prescription drugs which deal specifically with the production of acid.
Be prepared for extreme flatulence pain.
Be prepared for a condition called dumping where if you eat even just a little too much you'll have fun with a condition called dumping. This simply means that food will run right through you and you'd better be pretty close to a toilet.
The cutting of the vagus nerve won't keep you from your struggle with hunger. With all of the side effects which have for all intents and purposes left me homebound, I still think about food. If anything it's worse than it was before simply because I now have to watch every morsel I eat. Before I only thought about food when it was really time to eat.
See, because they performed this operation on a normal weighted person I have to struggle to keep weight on. I've had to be hospitalized and fed by tube as well as still eating. To the outside world I can look as if I'm anorexic which is the furthest thing from the truth. Very often I have to quit eating my meal even though my mouth is still enjoying the taste and texture of the food. If I don't quit though I'll pay for it dearly.
Before you take such a drastic measure please consult with at least two more doctors to see what their thoughts are on doing a complete vagotomy. It's not reversible.
Thank you, of all the posts, yours was the most useful.
What is not useful is those suggesting magic diets, or ritualized and brutal exercise.
Most of it is purposeful ignorance. See: One of the world's leading endocrinologists specializing in Insulin and LeptinThere is a great deal of misinformation about the Adkins diet.
Atkins Low Carb Food List
has repeatedly stated there there is No Minimum daily requirement for carbohydrates.
This Gillian McKeith ?
I was taught in radiology school that the normal alimentary canal of the human has around total 30 feet.....this includes esophagus(1'), stomach/duodedenum (1'), small intestine (23' + or -) and colon (4-5') McGraw/Hill anatomy still taught today
I doubt very seriously if you had 40' of small intestine ....more like I'm positive you didn't...and there is no way he could have measured small intestine w/o opening your abdomen as it loops through out your abdomen and pelvis....just saying. I'm not a doctor but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express....LOL.
Cutting the vagus nerve, however, will do nothing to help if you’ve got a verrrrrrrrrry looooooonnnnnnng small intestine. Double the length, to be exact. It sucks every bit of food, water, protein, fat, etc., out of whatever you eat. It would be handy if I lived in the Sahara but it’s not helpful in America.
How did you find this out?
You could eat sand and still gain weight,” she said. After all those years of blaming myself I had a reason.
So instead of the bypass why not cut out some small intestine?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
