Using Gastric Bypass to Cure Obesity.

 Using gastric bypass to cure obesity seems to have caused nation wide interest,but should this be a national strategy to cure obesity? Do the promoters of a gastric bypass really cure obesity?By making the stomach smaller of the obese person you have not cured obesity,you have simply made it impossible for the patient to binge on junk food!After a gastric bypass the patient becomes violently ill if he/she continues with their old eating pattern!Surely the price of a gastric bypass makes it impossible for every obese person to afford it.Common sense would have the obese population change their eating habits out their own free will, and not go for gastric bypass surgery that forces them to do so.

Gastric Bypass For The Whole Family?

Why the New Surgical Cure for Diabetes Will Fail!

Mark Hyman, MD

Practicing physician

 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mark-hyman/gastric-bypass_b_1382236.html

"Two seemingly groundbreaking studies, published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine found that Type 2 diabetes, or "diabesity," could be cured with gastric bypass surgery. The flurry of media attention and medical commentary hail this as a great advance in the fight against diabetes. The cure was finally discovered for what was always thought to be a progressive incurable disease. But is this really a step backwards? Yes, and here's why.
No one is asking the most obvious question. How did the surgery cure the diabetes? Did the surgeons simply cut out the diabetes like a cancerous tumor?
No. The patients in the studies changed their diet. They changed what they put in their stomach and that's something that doesn't require surgery to change. If they had surgery and they didn't stop bingeing on donuts and soda they would get violently ill and vomit and have diarrhea. That's enough to scare anyone skinny. If I designed a study that gave someone an electric shock every time they ate too much or the wrong thing, I could reverse diabetes in a few weeks. But you can get the benefits of a gastric bypass without the pain of surgery, vomiting and malnutrition.
Most don't realize that after gastric bypass, diabetes can disappear within a week or two while people are still morbidly obese. How does that happen? It is because food is the most powerful drug on the planet and real, whole, fresh food can turn on thousands of healing genes and hundreds of healing hormones and molecules that create health within days or weeks. In fact, what you put on your fork is more powerful than anything you can find in a prescription bottle.
The researchers asked the wrong question. It should not have been, "Does surgery work better than medication?" but "Does surgery work better than intensive lifestyle and diet change?"
Astonishingly, the researchers just compared surgery to medication, which has been proven over and over not to reverse diabetes, and often promotes progressive worsening of the diabetes. Patients who go on insulin gain weight, and their blood pressure and cholesterol go up. And in recent studies, those who had the most aggressive medical therapy to lower blood sugar had higher rates of heart attack and death.
These two new studies on gastric bypass should have included a treatment group that had intensive lifestyle therapy as well as medical therapy or surgery.
Lifestyle change and changes in diet work faster, better and more cheaply than any medication and are as effective or more effective than gastric bypass without any side effects or long-term complications. These changes are not easy, but then neither is gastric bypass.
A recent study entitled Reversal of Type 2 diabetes: normalization of beta cell function in association with decrease pancreas and liver triglycerides proved that diet alone could reverse Type 2 diabetes. The bottom line: A dramatic diet change (protein shake, low glycemic load, plant-based low-calorie diet but no exercise) in diabetics reversed most features of diabetes within one week and all features by eight weeks. That's right, diabetes was reversed in one week. That's more powerful than any drug known to modern science, and is as or more effective than gastric bypass. But since it was a diet study, it got no press or attention. Other research proves that intensive lifestyle therapy can achieve the same results.
We don't have to heal with steel, we can heal with meals.
As I write this, new guidelines and insurance coverage for this new surgical diabetes cure are in motion. But this is a grave mistake. One in four people over 65 years old, nearly one in five African Americans and almost one out of 10 of our whole population have Type 2 diabetes. By 2050, there will be one in three Americans with Type 2 diabetes.
Recommending gastric bypass as a national solution for our diabetes epidemic is bad medicine and bad economics. If the nearly 30 million diabetics in America took advantage of this new miracle cure at $25,000 a pop, it would cost three-quarters of a trillion dollars ($750,000,000,000). If we paid people $100 a pound to lose weight, we would still be better off. To treat the nearly 400 million diabetics around the globe, would cost $10 trillion. Does this make any sense?
Shrinking someone's stomach to the size of a walnut with surgery is one way to battle obesity and diabetes and may be lifesaving for a few, but it doesn't address the underlying causes. And many will regain the weight because they didn't change their understanding of their bodies or relationship to food.
Clearly, weight loss is critical and important for obtaining optimal health. However, what we are finding in patients who have gastric bypass surgery is that even a dramatic change in diet in a short period of time creates dramatic metabolic changes.
All the parameters that we thought were related to obesity, such as high blood sugar, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, inflammation and clotting, are dramatically reduced even without significant weight loss because of the rapid effects of dietary changes that control which genes get turned on or off. This is called nutrigenomics -- the way food talks to your genes. While weight loss is important, what's more important is the quality of food you put in your body -- food is information that quickly changes your metabolism and genes.
Unless we address the root causes -- what we eat, our sedentary lifestyle and the social and environmental conditions that drive obesity and disease -- we will have tens of millions more diabetics lining up for stomach stapling! The only ones to benefit would be the bariatric surgeons, the makers of the surgical instruments and the hospitals who are paid handsomely.
To paraphrase President Clinton, "It's the food, stupid!"
My book, The Blood Sugar Solution, is a personal plan for individuals to get healthy, for us to get healthy together in our communities and for us to take back our health as a society. Obesity and diabetes are social diseases and we need a social cure, not a surgical one.
My personal hope is that together we can create a national conversation about a real, practical solution for the prevention, treatment and reversal of our diabesity epidemic.
To learn more and to get a free sneak preview of the book go to www.drhyman.com.
Now I'd like to hear from you...
Do you think we should promote a gastric bypass as a national strategy to deal with the diabetes epidemic?
How have you reversed diabetes with food?
Have you had gastric bypass and did you maintain the weight loss? Or gain it back?
Please leave your thoughts by adding a comment below.
To your good health,
Mark Hyman, MD"

For more by Mark Hyman, M.D., click here.
For more on diabetes, click here.

As always a good article.What amazed me most is the statement that "what we eat, our sedentary lifestyle and the social and environmental conditions that drive obesity and disease -- we will have tens of millions more diabetics lining up for stomach stapling! The only ones to benefit would be the bariatric surgeons, the makers of the surgical instruments and the hospitals who are paid handsomely."

Come on Americans,take action and change back to the basics as described in this article.

A Solution For The Obesity Crisis In America:Give A Hand Up Not A Hand Out.

Do not be an innocent bystander any more.This is the message of this article.After a morbidly obese man posted a video making a plea for help , Phil Mc Graw  from the Dr Phil show reached out in an effort to help him.The man who is so obese that he cannot stand for a long time,fears for his life because of his obesity.Is this not a wake up call for all of us:Why do we not become involved in the life of someone who has obviously been rejected and forgotten.Why otherwise is he all alone just watching TV all day?

 A MORBIDLY obese man who made a tearful, videotaped plea for help on YouTube is getting help from Phil McGraw. 

 http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/entertainment/tv/morbidly-obese-man-robert-gibbs-plea-for-help-to-save-his-life-answered-by-phil-mcgraws-dr-phil-tv-show/story-e6frexlr-1226292532932

                                           Morbidly Obese And Fearing For His Life!
                                         
"McGraw's Dr Phil show reached out to Robert Gibbs, 23, of Livermore, California, after he posted his three-minute video.
Gibbs mentioned the program in his clip, which has been viewed more than a million times and inspired more than four dozen recorded responses from viewers offering diet tips and encouragement.

A crew from 61-year-old Phil McGraw's show was scheduled to come to his house and film him today, Gibbs said.

On the YouTube video, which he made the day before his birthday on Friday, Gibbs did not specify what kind of help he needed - just that he hoped someone knowledgeable about weight loss would see it and get in touch with him.
He also said he feared he would not live long enough to see his nephew and niece grow up or to have a family of his own. He estimated his weight to be between 272 to 318 kilograms (600 to 700 pounds).
"I'm making this video because I don't know what else to do,'' he said on the video.
"For everyone who is just going to make fun of me I really don't care. It doesn't matter. This is my last chance, my last hope, one of them at least.''
Gibbs declined to be interviewed by the AP because he said he had an exclusivity agreement with Dr Phil.
Along with suffering from diabetes, Gibbs has sores all over his body and cannot stand for more than a few minutes at a time, KCBS-TV said. He spends his days watching television.
Chris Powell, a fitness trainer on the US reality show Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition, also has expressed interest in working with Gibbs along with former contestants from the US version of The Biggest Loser."

"The Biggest Loser" seems  to be the go to guys when you are obese and want to lose weight.I hope Robert Gibbs' story will have a happy ending. If any one has advice for him ,watch the video on You Tube and leave a message.If you have been on the obese path and were able to make a turnabout, share your experience with some one who is in the same boat as you!This might just mean the hand up they were looking for.

A Solution For Obesity: Exercise And Stop Blaming The Kids.

 One of the solutions for obesity will be exercise.Many parents blame their kids' after school activities for not doing something themselves.The excuse is that there is not time left after hockey, soccer and other extramural activities.Putting your children first is a good thing.But putting yourself out of the picture is not right.There should be a balance in looking after my kids and looking after me.After all a healthy mum and dad, who sets the example by also exercising ,is what any child would be proud of.!However hectic the schedule,be sure to make time for yourself!

Don't use kids as your excuse not to exercise

The great thing about having active kids is that our family is protected from America’s youth obesity epidemic.

CRAIG HILL; Staff writer

Published: 03/25/12 12:05 am | Updated: 03/25/12 7:06 am

Read more here: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2012/03/25/2081432/dont-use-kids-as-your-excuse-not.html#storylink=cpy

"The great thing about having active kids is that our family is protected from America’s youth obesity epidemic.
The downside is it seems every spare minute is filled with soccer games, basketball games and swim meets. It’s almost a daily occurrence that my wife utters a phrase that begins with “We don’t have enough time.”
(My stock response: “Hey, you’re the one who wanted kids.”)
It’s easy for kids, especially active kids, to become an excuse to put off exercise. You might even feel kind of noble about it. You are, after all, putting your kids first, right?
I’ve met about a dozen people over the last year who lost 100 pounds or more. Almost all of them say it’s that overly self-sacrificing attitude that helped get them in trouble in the first place.
Putting your kids first shouldn’t mean not working out. It ought to mean adapting your workout.
Taryn West, wellness coordinator for the MultiCare Center for Healthy Living, says one good way to do this is to split up your workout.
“A lot of people have it in their mind that if they can’t do their entire 45-minute workout at once then they shouldn’t do it all,” West said. “That isn’t true. Sometimes it’s easier to find time in your day if you split up your workout.”
Three 15-minute workouts are still 45 minutes of exercise. Sure, you’re not building the cardio endurance you would if you did the exercise all at once, but it’s still quality exercise.
West says this approach is also good for overweight people trying to transfer out of a sedentary lifestyle. “It’s a nice way to get back into the game,” she said. “A lot of people adhere to the workout program better when they split up.”
Recently I took this approach in an attempt to reclaim a slice of a Saturday. I wanted to get in a 90-minute workout, but I simply didn’t have a block of time that long.
So, while the kids were fighting over the last breakfast waffle (picture a full-contact version of those old “Let go of my Eggo” commercials), I was squeezing in a 15-minute core workout.
After two basketball games in two different towns we returned home for a late lunch where I sneaked in about 45 minutes of weight lifting.
Next we shuttled my son to a friend’s house and I took my daughter to the pool for swimming. While she cranked out laps, I watched from above while churning out intervals on an exercise bike.
We were home in time for dinner before diving into our evening plans.
Was this ideal? No. But if I had waited until I had enough time on a Saturday to do it all at once the kids would probably be in college.
“I really encourage this,” West said. “... Working out in chunks is better than not working out at all.”
THE ARISTOFATS
Registration for the Pierce County Matchup team weight-loss competition remains open until March 30. More than 900 people have already registered and have shown no shortage of creativity when it comes to picking team names.
Some examples: Aristofats, Hugh and the Heifers, Lollapaloser, MuffinSTOPpers, Not-So-Thin Blue Line, The Fat and the Furious, Serious Weapons of Mass Reduction and No More Man Boobs.
For more information on the competition visit PierceCountyMatchup.com.
TIPS FOR EATING BETTER
March is National Nutrition Month and MultiCare dietitian Claire Kjeld recently passed along some tips for eating right.
1. Take the time to enjoy your food. “Eating too fast or when your attention is elsewhere may lead to eating too many calories,” Kjeld said.
2. Downsize your plates, bowls and glasses so don’t pile on too much food. Also, portion out food before you eat.
3. Eat more nutrient-rich foods such as vegetables, fruits, whole grains and fat-free or 1 percent milk and dairy products. Kjeld says, “make half your plate fruit and vegetables.”
4. Cut back on foods like cakes, cookies, ice creams, pizza and bacon that are high in solid fats. “Use these foods as occasional treats,” she said, “not everyday foods.”
5. Drink water instead of sugary drinks like soda and energy drinks packed with calories.
Kjeld recommends using ChooseMyPlate.gov as a resource for developing and maintaining a balanced diet. The website can help you determine how many calories you need per day to reach weight-loss goals. The website’s SuperTracker enables users to track what they consume and gives personalized eating plans.
For more eating tips from Kjeld, visit blog.thenewstribune.com/adventure.
Craig Hill’s fitness column runs each Sunday. Please submit questions and comments via craig. hill@thenewstribune.com, facebook.com/adventureguys or twitter.com/adventureguys. Also get more fitness coverage at blog.thenewstribune.com/adventure and thenewstribune.com/fitness.

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Read more here: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2012/03/25/2081432/dont-use-kids-as-your-excuse-not.html#storylink=cpy"

 A solution for obesity is sooo simple.Parents...set the example and start exercising!

Childhood Obesity Is An Epidemic

Childhood obesity is on the rise and someone has to stop it. Children spend more awake hours at school than at home.Although parents should become involved in training their children what to eat ,this article involves the school as a role player in fighting childhood obesity.The school nurse, in particular, can play an important role in educating and mentoring of the obese child and the parents of that child.

The Changing Shape of America's Youth: Combating Childhood Obesity Using the School Nurse.

By Kayla J. Moneyheffer

"Drive past a playground where children are playing and one thing is clear: the children of today come in all different shapes and sizes. The unfortunate reality is that an increasing number of these children are at a higer risk of early death because of childhood obesity. Despite being preventable and treatable, childhood obesity is an epidemic (CDC, 2011). Are children armed with the knowledge required to combat this ever-growing trend? Who is responsible for teaching children what is unhealthy? Healthy lifestyle information must be integrated into elementary school children’s curriculum to prevent childhood obesity. As this paper explores, school nurses are in a position to be at the forefront of collaborating with educators to teach students and their parents how to make better nutrition and exercise choices.
Obesity occurs when fat accumulates in adipose tissue and the organs, and is a disease “that promotes disability, decreases productivity, and shortens life span” (Ahima, 2011). According to the Centers for Disease Control (2011), childhood obesity has been on the rise since the 1970s. From 1971 to 2008, the percentage of obese children ages 6-11 rose from around 5% to over 20% (CDC, 2011). According to Murphy and Polivka (2004), “Obese children have a higher risk of developing serious chronic conditions such as hypertension, type 2 diabetes mellitus, obstructive sleep apnea, and hyperlipidemia” (p. 40). This is frightening considering heart disease, cerebrovascular events, and diabetes mellitus were among the top eight leading causes of death in the United States in 2007 (CDC). With the numbers rising, it is imperative that children and their parents are educated on how to both prevent and treat childhood obesity.

School age children today are living in a technological world, greatly affecting the rise of childhood obesity. Their access to TV, video games, and social media is increasing, therefore decreasing their time for physical activity (Nauta, Byrne, & Wesley, 2009). Fast food, sodas, vending machines, and processed foods are easy ways for children to make choices about their food without the guidance of a parent (MMWR, 1996). Portion control and calories are not being monitored when these types of foods are being chosen over healthy alternatives (Nauta, Byrne, & Wesley, 2009). Meanwhile, parents attribute the rise in childhood obesity to a lack of control over their children’s food choices, peer pressure, heredity, poor habits and portion control, and low socioeconomic status (Murphy and Polivka, 2007). A child’s health is dependent on decreasing energy intake (calories consumed) and increasing energy used (calories burned) (CDC, 2011).

An untapped resource for combatting obesity in a child’s life is the school nurse. It has been over 100 years since the introduction of school nurses. Their roles have changed substantially over the last 25 years, mostly in part to the integration of special needs students being placed in public schools and a higher incidence of children with chronic illnesses (Broussard, 2004). The National Association of School Nurses (2010) provides the best explanation of the current role of the school nurse:
“School nursing is a specialized practice of professional nursing that advances the well-being, academic success and life-long achievement and health of students… School nurses facilitate positive student responses to normal development; promote health and safety including a healthy environment; intervene with actual and potential health problems; provide case management services; and actively collaborate with others to build student and family capacity for adaptation, self-management, self advocacy, and learning.”
School nurses are responsible for obtaining health histories, screenings (vision, hearing, scoliosis, etc), medication administration, providing care for emergency injuries and illnesses, education, and coordinating with other faculty within the school (Healthy Schools, 2008). In a School Nurse Sample Job Description (Healthy Schools, 2008), the school nurse is called to make visits to the child’s home to help coordinate care with families and educate parents and children to take initiative in bettering their health. This job description places a lot of responsibility on the school nurse, and clearly refutes the notion that they only supply ice packs, Band-Aids, and Tylenol to children on a daily basis.
The roles of the school nurse contain the criteria needed to implement an in school program whose goal is to decrease the incidence of childhood obesity and equip children with the knowledge and tools necessary to make it a lifelong lifestyle. By recognizing their role, school nurses can integrate a specific plan into what they are already doing on a daily basis. School nurses are required to “provide ongoing health counseling with students, parents, school personnel, or health agencies,” (Healthy Schools, 2008) so why not counsel every student at once? In the long run, this may give the school nurse more time to spend with children in need of medical interventions related to illness and injury because teachers will collaborate with health education. A study conducted by Murphy and Polivka (2007) revealed that parents want to know the status of their child’s health, including their BMI. The study also revealed that parents feel that childhood obesity could be prevented and treated by school treatment programs, counseling for themselves and their child, and integrating proper nutrition into the classroom.
Traditionally, the elementary school year is from August to May, which means school nurses have the opportunity to impact the lives of these children for about nine months of the year. With the implementation of year round school, some schools will be adding more days to their school year (Huebner, 2010), giving school nurses an even greater opportunity. School nurses have the educational background and resources needed to assess children for obesity, set goals, and implement a plan (Nauta, Byrne, & Wesley, 2009). This combination of expertise and seeing the children on a daily basis gives school nurses the platform needed to reverse the trend of childhood obesity.
School nurses should organize a plan to educate children on the ideal picture of health and wellness. Implementations can be small, but will have a large effect on students who suffer with obesity. Results will be evaluated yearly and progress will be reported to the students’ parents. It is important that parents are informed and involved in the process so that the lifestyle changes have a better probability of becoming habit for the children. Nurses need the support of parents and other teachers in order for this plan to succeed.
Every child would benefit from education regarding proper nutrition and exercise. The school nurse would put together a monthly newsletter that would highlight various health promotion topics. Prior to school registration a letter explaining the program would be sent to parents of children in Kindergarten through fifth grade. The newsletter would outline the goals of the program as well as the screenings that will be done at the beginning and to evaluate progress. Newsletters sent during the school year would include information on family activities that involve physical activity, upcoming after school activities, appropriate serving sizes, and healthy meal and snack ideas. The information provided would be concurrent with the season and would all be low cost so that no family was excluded.
Education is the focus of the program, however without evaluating and reevaluating students, it would be difficult to see the effectiveness of the teaching. To accurately track and treat childhood obesity, baseline data needs to be collected at the beginning of the school year. The school nurse would be at registration, weigh and measure every child and enter the information by grade level or individual classroom, depending on the size of the school. The CDC offers a “Children’s BMI Tool for Schools” that can store 2,000 children’s height, weight, BMI, and BMI percentile (CDC, 2010). This tool separates the BMI percentiles by sex and places the data into categories: Underweight (< 5^th percentile), normal BMI (5^th-85^th percentile), overweight or obese (> 85^th percentile), and obese (> 95^th percentile). Larger school systems may need volunteers from the community or teaching staff to enter measurements. The school nurse will then further evaluate the children that are above the 85^th percentile by checking blood glucose levels and blood pressure to monitor for diabetes and hypertension.
School nurses will collaborate with educators to integrate proper nutrition and fitness information into the curriculum. They would meet at the beginning of the school year and the school nurse would teach and provide educators with the information to pass on to the children. Obviously not every aspect of their education would revolve around food, however with a few small integrations, healthy food will become a part of an elementary student’s every day vocabulary and they will become familiar and comfortable with it. The goal would be once or twice a week the students have a worksheet focusing on healthy lifestyles or introducing a new concept. The easiest and most logical place for fitness to be encouraged is at recess. Most children play without being told to, but teachers would watch for those not playing and try to encourage them by initiating a physical group game."

Proper nutrition and healthy activity can curb the childhood obesity epidemic.Why do we not give it a try?