NEWS -LOWCOUNTRY COACH CONTINUES TO LOSE WEIGHT AFTER COMMUNITY PAID FOR GASTRIC BYPASS (WITH VIDEO)

Lowcountry coach continues to lose weight after community paid for gastric bypass

 By: Andy Wontor | WCBD
Published: January 04, 2012 

 

It's a small thing...the thought of his nieces sitting on his lap, that brings tears to Clay Owens' eyes. When asked if he was looking forward to the opportunity, he struggled to answer without crying.
The hundreds of pounds that created a barrier between him and the people he loves...are gone...His wife Suzie explains,"Now he has a lap, and they can sit on his lap. They love their Uncle Clay and that is going to be wonderful for him to actually have a place for them to sit."
Clay Owens has easily lost the weight of a man - or two - in the past two years. Once weighing 660 pounds, two years and a regimented diet have carved out a new man with a trim face and transformed body.
The latest surgery to remove excess skin the most rewarding for the football coach and history teacher at Hemingway Middle and High School.
"To me I couldn't see it, but this I can see. I can see the quantitative part of it. When I woke up in the recovery room I started feeling around, to see exactly what was still left and what was gone."
What is gone? 47.5 pounds of excess skin. "I've told people all I ever wanted to be was normal, because 660 pounds is just not normal."
Clay's weight-loss and his life owed to members of his community who took it into their own hands two years ago by raising money for the gastric bypass surgery...and every surgery since. "Without that I am pretty sure I would have died in the last two years sometime."
 Owens now trying to save others by speaking out against insurance companies, like his own, who do not pay for the surgery. "The insurance companies need to cover the gastric bypass. It is not a surgery to change people, it is a tool to get people healthy."

ARTICLE - GASTRIC BYPASS CUTS DEATH RISK -STUDY SAYS

Gastric bypass cuts death risk: study

AFP January 4, 2012


WASHINGTON: Obese people who undergo gastric bypass surgery are less likely to die from heart attack and stroke than people who receive more conventional treatment for their weight condition, a Swedish study said Tuesday.
The study, published in the January 4 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, included about 4,000 patients in Sweden who were recruited between 1987 and 2001.
The surgery patients either had gastric bypass (13.2 per cent), banding (18.7 per cent), or vertical banded gastroplasty (68.1 per cent), and all lost 16-23 per cent of their body weight in subsequent years.
The control group did not have any type of surgery and showed a 0-1 per cent weight loss at follow-up periods of two, 10, 15 and 20 years.
“Bariatric surgery was associated with reduced number of fatal heart attack deaths (22 in the surgery group vs. 37 in the control group),” said the study led by Lars Sjostrom of the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
Bariatric surgery was also linked to a lower number of heart attacks overall, fewer strokes, and fewer fatal strokes.
But when the researchers looked at weight change alone, they could find no significant relationship to cardiovascular events in either group, suggesting that the weight loss itself might not be the driver of fewer deaths.
“There are many benefits to bariatric surgery and that some of these benefits are independent of the degree of the surgically induced weight loss,”said the study.
Other studies have shown that the benefits of gastric surgery for extremely obese people can include long-term changes of body weight, better quality of life, and fewer incidences of diabetes and cancer.
“The message is clear — bariatric surgery saves lives,” said Mitchell Roslin, chief of obesity surgery at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York, who was not involved in the study.
Roslin noted that the most common type of surgery in the study, vertical banded gastroplasty, has been replaced by newer methods that are even more effective, so the cardiovascular death risk is likely even lower today.
As many as 200,000 gastric bypass operations, in which the stomach is sectioned off so that the smaller amounts of food can fit inside, are done annually in the United States, where about a third of people are obese.

GLP-1 PALYS A ROLE IN GLUCOSE CONTROL AFTER GASTRIC BYPASS

GLP-1 Plays Role in Glucose Control After Gastric Bypass

Last Updated: January 03, 2012.

 There is a positive association between glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) concentrations and insulin concentrations following gastric bypass surgery in patients with type 2 diabetes, suggesting a role for GLP-1 in glucose control, according to a study published in the January issue of Diabetes Care.
TUESDAY, Jan. 3 (HealthDay News) -- There is a positive association between glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) concentrations and insulin concentrations following gastric bypass (GBP) surgery in patients with type 2 diabetes, suggesting a role for GLP-1 in glucose control, according to a study published in the January issue of Diabetes Care.
Bart J. Van Der Schueren, Ph.D., of St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital Center in New York City, and colleagues studied 15 obese patients with type 2 diabetes (one man, 14 women) before GBP surgery and one, 12, and 24 months following surgery. Glucose and GLP-1 concentrations were measured during an oral glucose challenge.
The researchers found that weight, glucose area under the curve from 0 to 180 min (AUC_0-180), insulin sensitivity index, and the homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance all decreased significantly up to one year following GBP, but did not decrease any further at the two-year marker. The decrease in insulin AUC_0-180 became significant at the two-year point. GLP-1 AUC_0-180 was positively associated with insulin AUC_0-180. Glucose AUC_0-180 started decreasing in magnitude one month after surgery, while the GLP-1 AUC_0-180 increased in magnitude one month after GBP, but did not achieve increased variance until the one-year follow-up point.
"The association between GLP-1 and insulin concentrations supports the idea that the incretins are involved in glucose control after GBP," the authors write.

NEWS - CARNIE WILSON STILL STRUGGLING WITH WEIGHT ISSUES AFTER GASTRIC SURGERY

Carnie Wilson Still Struggling With Weight

Jan. 3, 2012 Staff -- HispanicBusiness

Carnie Wilson wants to drop some pounds in 2012. Don't we all? But the 43-year-old Wilson Phillips singer lost 150 pounds since her gastric bypass in 1999, and is still struggling. That's one of the side effects of sober living and motherhood, apparently. "I've had so much stress in the last year so it's really a struggle," Carnie Wilson told Fox News, as reported by TV Guide. "I can't smoke a joint. I can't have a glass of wine because I want 10 joints and 10 glasses of wine." Carnie Wilson says she doesn't hide her weight or addiction issues from her children, Lola, 6, and Luciana, 2. Wilson got sober after giving birth to Lola. She sees herself in Lola, and it worries her. "Lola knows I struggle with (weight). I see Lola loving sugar like all the other children but I also see her pay a little more attention like when there's a birthday party, I see her being the first in line to get the cake. I see me in her," Wilson says.

ARTICLE - WHY WERE GETTING FATTER--AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT

Why we're getting fatter -- and what to do about it

By David Frum, CNN Contributor

updated 7:51 AM EST, Mon January 2, 2012

 

 

Editor's note: David Frum, a CNN contributor, was a special assistant to President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2002. He is the author of six books, including "Comeback: Conservatism That Can Win Again," and is the editor of FrumForum.

(CNN) -- Monday is the second day of the year, which means millions of Americans have started new diets. They resolved to lose weight, get in shape, and they are starting strong.
Sadly, the odds are that almost all of these resolutions will soon be broken and abandoned. Close to half of all dieters end up heavier than ever. Virtually none will lose weight permanently.
The same is true for the country as a whole. Obesity has become the country's leading public health problem. Yet as we talk and talk about the issue, the country only becomes fatter and fatter.


The problem for the country echoes the problem for individuals: Willpower is not enough. "(It's a) basic instinct, even stronger than the sexual instinct, to store calories to survive the next period of starvation. And we live in an environment where there's food every half mile. It's tasty, cheap, convenient, and you can eat it with one hand."
Thus says Martijn Katan of the Institute of Health Sciences at VU University in Amsterdam, author of one of the many studies on the limits of dieting, quoted in U.S. News & World Report.
If you as an individual want to change your weight, you must change your whole life. Likewise, to reduce obesity in modern society, we will have to alter the way society is organized.
Weight gain is driven by two trends: increases in calories consumed and decrease in calories expended. Modern America induces both.
For example: The after-inflation cost of sugary soda has declined by an estimated 48% over the past 20 years. Correspondingly, consumption of sugary soda has soared: Sugary soda is now the single most important source of calories in the American diet.
For example again: The number of Americans who work at physically taxing jobs continues its steady decline. Even those jobs that demand physical labor -- manufacturing, for example -- are much less grueling than they used to be, as electrically powered machines do the lifting and shifting that used to consume human energy.


While Americans expend fewer calories at work, they spend more time in cars -- almost twice as much as in the 1970s. They spend 26 hours per week consuming TV or online entertainment. Americans could theoretically compensate for more sedentary lifestyles by stepping up their recreational exercise -- but only about 20% of Americans bother. Some 80% never do -- including presumably all those failed dieters.
Want to change this? It's no small project. It would involve the redesign of cities, the relocation of schools, the reinvention of our modes of eating and amusement.
First lady Michelle Obama has made healthy eating her special project. Good for her, and let's hope her efforts lead to success. But if we are to succeed, we should understand: The campaign against obesity will have to look a lot less like the campaign against smoking (which involves just one decision, to smoke or not to smoke) and much more like the generation-long campaign against highway fatalities, which required the redesign of cars, the redesign of highways, and changes in personal behavior like seat-belt use and drunk driving.
The good news is that the campaign against highway fatalities has yielded real progress: down two-thirds since the mid-1960s. The bad news is that, for most of us, it will take more than a New Year's resolution. However, if you are seriously resolved, congratulations -- and see you on the jogging path.

BOOK - "SUCESSUL WEIGHT LOSS WITH GASTRIC SLEEVE" NOW AVAILABLE FOR IPAD/KINDLE/NOOK

“Successful Weight Loss with the Gastric Sleeve” Now Available for iPad, Kindle and Nook

Release Date: 2012-01-02 Category: Medicine

Mexico bariatric surgeon Dr. Guillermo Alvarez releases his book "Successful Weight Loss with the Gastric Sleeve" on the iPad and Amazon Kindle and Barnes and Noble Nook.

 Successful Weight Loss with the Gastric Sleeve is now available on the iPad, Kindle and Nook. This book is one of the first of its kind to appear in digital format, according to the book’s author, Mexico bariatric surgeon Guillermo Alvarez, who hopes it reaches a wide population of people interested in bariatric surgery, specifically the gastric sleeve procedure.

“Successful Weight Loss with the Gastric Sleeve” is a comprehensive resource for potential bariatric surgery candidates. After exploring the general topics of obesity and weight loss treatments, the book goes into greater detail about gastric sleeve surgery. It includes an explanation of the surgery itself, guidelines for post-operative diet and exercise and a list of potential complications. “Successful Weight Loss with the Gastric Sleeve” concludes with powerful patient testimonials.

Gastric sleeve, otherwise known as a vertical sleeve gastrectomy, is an operation to reduce the size of the stomach so it can hold less food, thereby restricting the patient’s caloric intake. Some bariatric surgeons consider it advantageous over gastric bypass because it does not require rerouting the intestinal tract, and produces steady, rapid weight loss.

To learn more about Dr. Alvarez, his book or his Mexico weight loss surgery practice, please call 1-866-MY-SLEEV.

More about Dr. Guillermo Alvarez

Dr. Guillermo Alvarez is a weight loss surgeon who focuses on laparoscopic procedures, including gastric sleeve, gastric sleeve plication and Lap Band in Mexico. His practice is located in Piedras Negras, near the border of Texas. Dr. Alvarez is committed to providing the safest and most effective bariatric surgery procedures to improve a patient’s health and overall well-being.

For more information, please visit http://www.endobariatric.com or contact us today.

ARTICLE -ANTI-OBESITY ADS FEATUING OVERWEIGHT KIDS SPARK CONTRAVERSY IN GEORGIA

Anti-obesity ads featuring overweight kids spark controversy in Georgia 

Harsh ad campaign makes overweight kids look miserable

By Rheana Murray / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Monday, January 2 2012, 10:31 PM

A series of stark anti-obesity ads featuring miserable, overweight kids has sparked controversy in Georgia.
The ads feature children talking about their weight issues in between harrowing messages such as, “Some diseases aren’t just for adults anymore,” and “Being fat takes the fun out of being a kid.”
Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, which co-founded the Strong4Life ad campaign, intended for the ads to be grim, hoping the clips would help parents recognize the severity of the obesity epidemic in Georgia, where it is the second highest in the nation.

“We felt like we needed a very arresting, abrupt campaign that said: ‘Hey Georgia! Wake up. This is a problem,’” said Linda Matzigkeit, a senior vice president at Children’s Healthcare, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“If we do not wake up, this will be disastrous for our state,” Matzigkeit said to ABC.
Critics are slamming the campaign for its use of shock tactics, saying the ads don’t actually offer a solution to child obesity, ABC reported.

“There is no mention about what a parent can do other than to say ‘stop sugarcoating the problem,’” said Dr. Lori Feldman-Winter, a pediatrics professor at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.
Experts also worry the campaign will create self-confidence problems for overweight children.
“Blaming the victim rarely helps,” said Dr. Miriam Labbok, a health professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, to ABC. “These children know they are fat, and they are ostracized already.”
According to Dr. John Morton of the Stanford University School of Medicine, the ads might be harsh, but they could work, ABC reported.
“To change deep-seated social and physiologic behavior like eating will require enormous work, and these ads will help the family start thinking about prevention,” he said.