Home
Privacy Policy
About Us
Contact Us
Terms of Service
All Articles
Sitemap XML

Member Login
Submit Articles
New User
Forgot Password
Top Authors
Most Popular Articles
Submission Guidelines
RSS Feeds

ADD TO DEL.ICIO.US
ADD TO NETSCAPE
ADD TO TECHNORATI FAVORITES
ADD TO YAHOO MYWEB

A Drink Or Two And Obesity Surgery May Be A Dangerous Mixture

Articles » Disease-&-Illness » Obesity >> View Article

A Drink Or Two And Obesity Surgery May Be A Dangerous Mixture

By: Donald Saunders

After years of debate we are finally coming around to the unavoidable conclusion that surgery is the only truly successful and lasting solution to the problem of morbid obesity. And not before time!

At the moment obesity is probably the leading health problem in the industrialized world and in the United States alone some 60 percent of the population is overweight, with close to 24 percent being obese and 3 percent extremely obese. Now 3 percent may not appear to be large figure but when you consider that it represents in excess of 9 million severely obese people this is a fairly major problem.

Despite the fact that more and more attention is being turned towards the problem of obesity and its cure, it is surprising just how much we are still learning about the condition, including the affects of alcohol on people who have undergone weight loss surgery.

For a time now there has been a fair amount of anecdotal evidence that people who have undergone gastric bypass surgery are affected more by alcohol but it was not until late last year that any real attempt was made to assess the extent of the problem.

In a fairly small-scale study the affects of alcohol on 19 people who had gastric bypass surgery was compared to the affects on 17 control subjects. The people in the study each drank a small 5 ounce glass of red wine and their breath alcohol was then measured until it had fallen back to zero.

The study showed that alcohol levels peaked at a higher level in the gastric bypass patients and also that they took much longer to fall back to zero. But, most interestingly, the study also demonstrated that just }a single|one} small glass of wine was sufficient to push the breath alcohol level in a significant number of gastric bypass surgery patients above the legal limit for driving in several US states.

The explanation for the heightened affects of alcohol on gastric bypass surgery patients is fairly easy to understand because surgery reduces the volume of the stomach and bypasses a section of the intestine, both areas of the body which play a significant role in breaking down alcohol before it gets into the bloodstream.

So precisely what does this mean for gastric bypass surgery patients?

Well, aside from the obvious need to take care and certainly to avoid driving after drinking even small amounts of alcohol, the implications for gastric bypass surgery patients do in fact go a little deeper.

One particular problem is that alcohol is a relaxant and this can cause difficulties with post-surgical weight loss and to maintaining weight loss. As alcohol relaxes the stomach, including the lower esophageal sphincter, together with the intestine, patients who enjoy alcohol can eat more and alcohol in effect counteracts the affects of surgery. As if this were not bad enough many people are more socially active after surgery and this often means an increased intake of alcohol.

There will still need to be a great deal more research carried out of course but, at the end of the day, the fact is that people who have weight loss surgery need to be aware of the risks of alcohol and adjust their lifestyle accordingly.

GastricBypassFacts.info gives a wealth of information on gastric bypass surgery including before and after gastric bypass pictures

Article Source: www.find-an-article.com/index.php?page=author&author_name=Donald Saunders

Total Views : 65 Word Count Appx. : 553

See All articles From Author

View Related Articles » Disease-&-Illness » Obesity

Warning: include() [function.include]: URL file-access is disabled in the server configuration in /home/thmg1/public_html/article.php on line 230

Warning: include(http://www.find-an-article.com/rsstax.php) [function.include]: failed to open stream: no suitable wrapper could be found in /home/thmg1/public_html/article.php on line 230

Warning: include() [function.include]: Failed opening 'http://www.find-an-article.com/rsstax.php' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/lib/php:/usr/local/lib/php') in /home/thmg1/public_html/article.php on line 230