A Drink Or Two And Obesity Surgery May Turn Out To Be A Dangerous Mix Article

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A Drink Or Two And Obesity Surgery May Turn Out To Be A Dangerous Mix

If you are morbidly obese and like a drink or two then there is something that you ought to know when it comes to mixing weight loss surgery and alcohol.

Author: Donald Saunders

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Following years of debate we are finally coming around to the inescapable conclusion that surgery is the only truly successful and lasting solution to the problem of severe obesity. And it is most certainly not before time!

Today obesity is probably the leading health problem in the industrialized world and in the United States alone about 60 percent of the population is overweight, with almost 24 percent being obese and 3 percent severely obese. Now 3 percent may not appear to be large figure but when you realize that it is in excess of 9 million severely obese individuals this is a pretty big problem.

Despite the fact that attention is increasingly being focused on the problem of obesity and its treatment, it is surprising just how much we are still learning about the condition, including the affect that alcohol can have on individuals who have undergone gastric bypass surgery.

For a considerable time now there has been a reasonable amount of anecdotal evidence that individuals who have had weight loss surgery are affected more by alcohol but it was not until late in 2006 that any attempt was made to assess the extent or otherwise of the problem.

In a reasonably low-key study the affects of alcohol on 19 individuals who had weight loss surgery was compared to the affects on 17 control subjects. The individuals taking part in the study were each given a 5 ounce glass of red wine and their breath alcohol was then measured at 5 minute intervals until it fell back to zero.

The study showed that alcohol levels peaked at a higher level in the weight loss patients and also that they took much longer to return to zero. Perhaps most interestingly, the study also showed that just }a single|one} small glass of wine was sufficient to push the breath alcohol level in some weight loss surgery patients over the legal alcohol level for driving in several states.

The reason for the raised affects of alcohol on weight loss surgery patients is quite simple to understand because surgery both reduces the size of the stomach and bypasses part of the intestine, both areas of the body which play a key role in breaking down alcohol before it finds its way into the bloodstream.

So exactly what does this mean for weight loss surgery patients?

Well, apart from the clear need to be careful and most definitely to avoid driving after drinking even small quantities of alcohol, the implications for weight loss surgery patients do in fact go a bit wider.

One major problem is that alcohol is a relaxant and this can cause problems with post-operative weight loss and to the maintenance of weight loss. Because alcohol relaxes the stomach, which includes the lower esophageal sphincter, and the intestine, patients who enjoy alcohol are able to eat more and the presence of alcohol effectively counteracts the affects of surgery. As if this were not bad enough many individuals are more socially active after surgery and this frequently means an increased consumption of alcohol.

There still needs to be considerably more research carried out of course but, in the end, the fact is that individuals who have gastric bypass surgery must be aware of the possible risks of alcohol and watch their consumption accordingly.

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