Obesity Surgery May Become Option for Many More - A Fantastic Trend!

Isn't this great? Weight Loss Surgery is going mainstream! There may be some cases where surgery is required but that is very unlikely. Once again instead of becoming interested in the root cause of obesity in our society and making a shift towards a healthier world, we are encouraging ignoring the cause and just focusing on the symptom of obesity. Health should be the priority, not some numeric number! So many people are compromising their health just to lose weight, when the most effective way to address obesity is the comprehensive approach that addresses exercise, food intake and awareness over negative thought patterns.

Weight-loss surgery, once a last resort for extremely overweight people, may soon become an option for those who are less heavy.

An advisory committee to the Food and Drug Administration will consider on Friday a request by Allergan, the pharmaceutical company, to significantly lower how obese someone must be to qualify for surgery using the company’s Lap-Band device, which restricts intake to the stomach.

On Wednesday, the F.D.A. acknowledged that a new study by the company showed that people in the proposed range of obesity who had the band experienced “statistically significant decreases in all measures of weight loss.”

If the agency approves the change, the number of Americans eligible for the Lap-Band operation could easily double, ensuring more sales for Allergan and probably more insurance coverage for such operations. But the proposed change, sought at a time when the obesity epidemic in the United States seems intractable, still leaves some people uneasy, in part because of side effects and failure rates. In addition, long-term weight reduction is hard to maintain.

“You’re talking about millions and millions of people who would meet these criteria,” said Dr. George Blackburn, associate director of the division of nutrition at Harvard Medical School. “Let’s make sure by the most rigorous research that this is safe and effective.”

A new generation of diet pills has failed to gain federal approval, limiting options for overweight Americans, and Allergan and other companies are betting that surgery will become more of a frontline option rather than a last resort.