It's a little creepy to me how much the media looove gastric bypass surgery.
I got curious; I looked it up. Gastric bypass is normally described as something like "stomach stapling" (which has been around for years), where the stomach's capacity is reduced. I didn't realize that it also includes partial removal or bypass of the intestines, which causes "malabsorption". If the patient overeats beyond the stomach's capacity, the intestines' ability to digest is also reduced and excess food passes undigested. In other words, diarrhea. (I assume this is the "dumping syndrome" that is sometimes cryptically mentioned by the media; they don't describe it or explain its cause.)
What I'm wondering is how this is any different from a bulimic who uses laxatives to purge after a binge.
On the other hand, desperate times call for desperate measures.
I'm thinking there's some math that goes into a weight loss surgery decision. Diet and exercise takes time. If a person has serious weight-related health problems, it's possible that the time it would take to lose the weight the "right" way may be greater than the time they may have. Those people probably need surgery. But even in our obese society, those folks are still outliers.
Nobody targets a major advertising and media blitz at just a few outliers.
Pretty recently, I had hopes that weight loss surgery might rescue me from this problem of not having my head in the right place to lose it the right way. Just fix it once and for all. I was annoyed, but also relieved, to learn two things: one, surgery doesn't work unless you also get your head in the right place (hence the 50% failure rate), and two, I don't qualify. Yet.
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What I don't understand is this: what's the point of a massive media blitz surrounding gastric-bypass? Is it really just to maximize the number of people who get the surgery whether they need it or not? Just to line the pockets of doctors who perform the surgery? I'd understand if it were a pill, because the pharmaceutical companies are sleazebags, but are there really enough sleazy doctors out there to make the expense of running a marketing campaign like this justifiable (to somebody)?
Are the food companies behind it? Maybe it's a way to keep their consumer alive long enough to keep consuming at the present level?
I dunno. I don't immediately understand why gastric bypass is being so heavily marketed.
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