I am traveling all day today so just a quick post today with some new links:

Several headlines recently posted on-line.

Weight loss surgery & depression  article states that depression doesn’t prevent weight loss after surgery .   Now, what would be interesting – is whether depressed patients were more likely to dispay or revert to disordered/ sabotage behaviors such as the ‘drinking butter’ phenomena.

(Often when weight loss surgery fails – it fails because of maladaptive behaviors.  These behaviors are often similar to the behaviors that caused obesity/ overeating in the first place such as identifying “food as love,”using for as a coping mechanism for emotional pain (the so-called ‘comfort food’, which is a concept that needs to be banned from society), and other eating behaviors unrelated to physical hunger.

This is why most surgery patients are required to see a mental health specialist to identify and treat ‘food issues prior to surgery’.)  But depression (which may cause overeating for some people) is not the same as neuroses or maladaptive coping mechanisms.   This also includes post-surgery behaviors that we have alluded to in the past, such as attemping to ‘trick’ or circumvent capacity restrictions by continuous eating (sipping or eating every few minutes for several hours during the day.)

Weight loss surgery decreases migraines.

Weight loss surgery helps women with Polycystic ovary syndrome and infertility  -this article was actually written by another nurse, and talks about the effects of gastric bypass on women with PCOS.

Now, the only thing that concerns me – is having gastric bypass surgery to then boost fertility with pregnancy to follow in a short time is a lot to put a body through.  Practically, a person should probably wait a year or two after the surgery to let the person have time to adjust to the new nutritional requirements, and lifestyle changes surgery requires  before placing additional metabolic and nutritional requirements that pregnancy demands.

Also, the pathological eating that often occurs during pregnancy needs to be addressed prior t planning a pregnancy.  (The “eating for two buffet” mentality often results in pregnancy weight gains of 60, 70 or even 100 pounds which places the mom and developing fetus at risk for additional health problems as well as post-partum obesity.

But gastric bypass surgery, like any medical procedure is not all benefits and no risk – there have just been less headlines this week.  But more than half of gastric bypass patients regain the weight – often due to the behavior patterns we briefly touched on above.

Note: some of the articles linked are older (2001, etc) but I try to provide links to free articles, not paid sites (articles average about 30.00 when for purchase.)