Weight Loss Surgery

Weight loss surgery scares me. It's surgery, so it involves all the normal risks of surgery, like infection and adverse reactions to anesthesia. On top of the normal risks, it's surgery on someone who is overweight and presumably not in great health. (If they were in great health, they wouldn't be having the surgery.) It's also altering a portion of the body that is not damaged or causing harm. Those alterations cause problems with vitamin deficiency.

Beyond the physical issues I have with the surgery is that it ignores the underlying causes of the problem. The weight didn't arrive magically and that should be addressed. With a non-surgical weight loss plan, there is time to address the emotional and habitual reasons for the weight gain. Because those issues are ignored, they manifest in other ways, or come back later with the weight coming back.



Before doctors will perform the surgery, they will often require their patients to shed some weight. This means they use a non-surgical method to lose weight before the surgery. I don't understand why someone having success with non-invasive, non-surgical, low-risk methods would stop using them for surgery. I've heard reasons like inability to follow a diet, or self-control, but their pre-surgery success counters those excuses.

Over the long-term, people who have weight loss surgery put the weight back on, plus now they've had surgery and are dealing with the side-effects of that. I know that people who choose traditional weight loss plans are likely to regain, but without the huge risk or expense. I wish that weight loss surgery was viewed more drastically than it is. I would love for some therapy to be required before it was undertaken. I feel the same way about any elective surgery, actually. Surgery is a major event and shouldn't be entered into lightly.