Gastric bypass has gotten very popular in the recent years since it promises easy results. Just like everything that comes easy, it has a price. The gastric bypass procedure was made for people who are extremely obese (BMI 40 and above) or have very complex weight related problems with a BMI of 35 or above.
BMI is used as a general guideline to see how people compare to people with similar sizes. For example:
Underweight, BMI 18.5
Healthy weight, BMI 18.5-24.9
Overweight, BMI 25-29.9
Obese, BMI 30 and above
Once a patient reaches the obese category, the patient has higher risk of diabetes, high blood pressure, and other cardiovascular problems. Gastric bypass was made to help patients in that situation to help get out of it, since the issue of over eating can tend to be due to a discrepancy within the neural pathway.
What is gastric bypass?
It is a procedure where the stomach is cut significantly smaller making less room for food and connected into the small intestine. So, for a patient to eat a full meal with a small stomach like that is difficult make the patient feel full faster causing them to lose weight. But this isn’t just solving the space issue within the stomach but also causing inhibitory signals to the brain to increase letting that person feel full faster. After a while the patients usually are able to eat a little more but the lower number of cravings and the small stomach space restricts them from over eating.
This does seem like a harmless and easy solution, but it should only be performed for patients who are at a very high risk of