Long Term Impact of Bariatric Surgery on Body Weight, Comorbidities and Nutritional Status
I’ve recently had a patient go to one of those “info” meetings for those considering bariatric surgery. The information presented was sugar coated and painted a picture of these overweight patients as victims of their genetics, with no real responsibility for their condition. While this alone may be bad enough, there was no mention of the most important information. Once someone has bariatric surgery, their lives will be forever changed. Not even counting failed surgeries and repeat surgeries for adhesions and complication. Not counting the fact that many of these patients end up with the same risk of heart disease and diabetes.
The real issue is that an absolutely essential process of life–digestion and absorption of nutrients–is forever altered. The rest of their life will need to be different, avoiding foods w/ poor nutrient density and only taking in high nutrient density foods. Given the number of bariatric surgeries performed each year, you can bet we will see ever increasing numbers of very sick, post-bariatric surgery, patients.
