Weight-Loss Surgery: A Cure for the Morbidly Obese?
Weight-Loss Surgery: A Cure for the Morbidly Obese?
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By Rachel Pomerance
Weight loss, they say, is a matter of math – burn more calories than you take in, and voila, the pounds peel away. But sometimes there's a glitch in that equation, especially when it applies to people who are seriously obese.
Consider the case of David Stewart, a 56-year-old Cleveland high school teacher who had struggled with his weight since childhood. When shopping for back-to-school jeans, he says his twin brother "always bought slim-cut. I always had to get huskies." As the years went on, Stewart tried different diets – he lost, then gained back, a bunch of weight on fen-phen, the infamous 1990s diet drug that was ultimately linked to heart disease. As for working out, with 246 pounds on his 5-foot-9 frame, Stewart says there were few exercises he could do "without feeling like I was going to pass out."
Meanwhile, his weight-related health conditions – high blood pressure, severe sleep apnea and asthma – became dire. At his annual checkup last year, Stewart says, "My doctor told me, 'If you don't do something about this, one of these is going to kill you,' and that got my attention." He had his stomach stapled at the Cleveland Clinic in November 2012. Two weeks post-surgery, he already lost 34 pounds. And today, he's at about 150 pounds. "I stuck very closely to what [my care providers] told me to eat and all of their recommendations, plus I joined the YMCA, and I work out at least five days a week," he says. "I feel fantastic."
With obesity rates at epidemic proportions in this country – more than one-third of U.S. adults are obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – weight-loss surgeries can provide a life-saving option for people suffering from severe complications that can stem from obesity. However, the surgeries are rather rare, especially for men. Women comprise about 80 percent of weight-loss surgery patients, and men typically opt for surgery only after their weight has led to serious health conditions, say experts in the field.
"Men tend to wait longer to pursue a surgical option to help with weight control," for example, when they "can no longer function at their jobs or with their daily activities," says Anita Courcoulas, a bariatric (weight loss) and general surgeon at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's Magee-Womens Hospital. "This is changing in the last several years with the recognition of the many health benefits of bariatric surgery, especially the treatment of Type 2 diabetes, and both more men and women are seeking surgery to help improve their health."
According to Shawn Garber, director of the New York Bariatric Group, there are roughly 200,000 weight-loss surgeries nationwide each year, an upswing from pre-recession levels. In his own practice, he says the volume was up by 50 percent just last year.
The American Society for Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery reports that the number of weight-loss surgeries peaked at 200,000 per year in 2008 and 2009 and then fell in 2010 – the last year for which it has data – to 150,000 to 160,000 surgeries. The group notes that those numbers reflect just 1 percent of the population eligible for weight-loss surgery.
To be eligible for the surgery, a candidate must be considered morbidly obese, Garber says. In general, though this depends on the specific weight-loss surgery, a candidate would need a body mass index, a measurement based on height and weight, of 40. That would translate to 294 pounds for someone who is 6 feet tall, and 218 pounds for someone who is 5-foot-2, Garber says.