Bariatric surgery causes remission of food addiction
16 October 2014
Food addiction is an interesting entity and this study looks at how Bariatric Surgery affects this condition. The concern from Bariatric surgeons is that patients who have a food addiction will have a poor outcome from the operation. However, the good news is that it seems to have a very beneficial effect on patients who feel that they are affected by food addiction. The word addiction suggests that it is something that is out of the patients control, and the nice thing is that weight loss surgery gives patients back the ability to control their eating and drinking behaviours - something they may have felt was never going to possible for them. If you would like more information on this or any other topic around weight loss surgery - please don't hesitate to email me.
Regards,
Steph Ulmer
Bariatric surgery-induced weight loss induces remission of food addiction and improves several eating behaviours that are associated with the condition in extreme obesity, according to the study published in the journal Obesity.
Although, bariatric surgery is believed to be one most effective available weight loss therapy for obesity and impacts on patients desire to eat, it is not known whether it can affect food addiction in patients who meet diagnostic criteria for the condition before surgery.
Therefore, researchers from the Center for Human Nutrition and Atkins Center of Excellence in Obesity Medicine, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO, assessed whether weight loss induced gastric bypass, gastric banding and sleeve gastrectomy induced remission of food addiction, as well as normalising eating behaviours associated with the condition.
They recruited 44 obese patients (39 women, mean BMI48 ± 8) before and after bariatric surgery (after they lost ∼20% of their body weight). Twenty five patients had gastric bypass, 11 gastric banding and eight sleeve gastrectomy).
Food addiction was identified in 14 of 44 subjects (32%) before surgery, with no significant differences in factors that could affect the condition such as age, race, level of formal education, and income level.
They reported that remission of food addiction in 13 of the 14 subjects (93%) and no new cases were identified after surgery. The prevalence of food addiction in this study population decreased from 32% to 2% (p< 0.00001)
and reduced the median number of symptoms in all subjects (p< 0.0001).
Surgery was found to decrease food cravings in both groups, but the decrease was greater in patients addicted to food. Unsurprisingly, the addicted patients craved foods more frequently before, but not after surgery. Interestingly, surgery decreased cravings for all types of foods but cravings for starchy foods were still more frequent in in the food addicted group (p=0.009).
“Our findings demonstrate that weight loss can induce remission of food addiction, even though subjects are still obese,” the authors write. “These data suggest that obesity itself does not cause food addiction, but that food addiction is a contributing, but modifiable, risk factor for obesity. Additional studies are needed to determine the mechanism(s) responsible for food addiction remission, and to determine whether the presence of food addiction influences the weight loss efficacy of bariatric surgery.”
Magda Szubanski parts ways with Jenny Craig again
9 October 2014
I suspect this sounds familiar to a few of you... successfully losing significant amount of weight on a diet and then being faced with the heartbreaking reality of weight re-gain. The yo-yo dieting phenomenon is a very real experience for lots of people and it can break the strongest resolve. It is a cycle that slowly eats away at your self worth and puts you into 'failure' mode. This is devastating and certainly makes you ask the question 'is there a better way?' Bariatric surgery is definitely an option for most people who are obese and can be the catalyst needed to finally break the cycle of failure with successive diets. Anyway, let me know if you need more information. Afterall, it doesn't hurt to be better informed.
Happy hunting,
Steph Ulmer
Magda Szubanski parts ways with Jenny Craig again
Not a happy ending: the relationship between Magda Szubanski and Jenny Craig has finished for the second time.
Just six months after she was re-signed, Magda Szubanski has split with Jenny Craig.
It looks fishy and some news outlets are reporting that it is because Szubanski failed to lose upwards of 30 kilos fast enough.
A spokeswoman for the weight loss company confirmed the 53-year-old comedian will no longer hold her role as an ambassador, but refused to be drawn in on the reason why.
Szubanski in 2012, during her first stint as ambassador for Jenny Craig.
"Jenny Craig and Magda Szubanski can confirm that their working relationship will not be continuing," she told AAP in a statement on Wednesday.
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"Magda will pursue her weight loss journey privately."
It is a surprise move given Szubanski's contract was reportedly worth more than $1 million.
The split comes only half a year after Jenny Craig re-signed Szubanski in March, so the Kath and Kim star could try to shed the kilos she re-gained after her previous weight loss success with the company.
Szubanski famously lost 36 kilos with Jenny Craig, dropping to 85kg from 121kg between 2009 and 2011.
The comic starred in Jenny Craig's ad campaigns and was credited with triggering a spike in new customers.
But her failure to maintain her goal weight reportedly led to her being dropped from the company's promotional material.
She was replaced by rising star Rebel Wilson, who was then succeeded by former Spice Girl and X Factor judge Mel B last year.
Szubanski drew criticism for signing back on, including from radio commentator Matty Johns, who lamented the company was "rewarding people for being fat, and getting fat again".
She blamed "calorie amnesia" and a broken rib for the piling the weight back on.
Szbanski and her management are yet to respond to calls for comment from Fairfax Media.
Sleeve Gastrectomy lowest Complication rates - compared to Lapband and Bypass surgery
9 September 2014
This study comes out of a single Bariatric institution in America and it directly compares how patients go following the 3 types of Bariatric procedure ie Gastric Sleeve, Gastric Banding and Gastric Bypass. This is quite a useful comparison because you know that the same group of surgeons have performed the operations. Whereas, if you compare Bypass surgeries from one hospital with Sleeve Gastrectomys from another hospital there are a lot more variables that may lead to a difference in outcomes (including the fact that different surgeons will be operating in the different hospitals). It also shows that they can all be very safe procedures in their own right - which is reassuring too! If you are interested in more information than a google search can give you then feel free to book a consultation to discuss the issues with me. I look forward to meeting you.
Kind regards,
Steph Ulmer
LSG (Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy) has lower complcation rates than bypass and banding
Thursday, July 5, 2012 - 10:05
Owen Haskins - Editor in chief, Bariatric News
According to the outcomes of a new study presented at the ASMBS’ 29th Annual Meeting in San Diego, CA, when compared with other bariatric procedures laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) appears to have the lowest procedure related morbidity.
“The aim of the study was to identify which of the bariatric procedures performed today is the safest in terms of procedure related morbidity,” said Dr Raul J Rosenthal from the Bariatric and Metabolic Institute and the Section of Minimally Invasive and Endoscopic Surgery, Cleveland Clinic Florida. “So we carried out a single institution retrospective review of our centre’s six year experience since LSG was introduced comparing the procedure with Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) and laparoscopic adjustable gastric band (LAGB).”
Rosenthal and colleagues retrospectively analysed a prospectively collected database in morbidly obese patients that underwent bariatric surgery between 2005 and 2011. They identified and compared complications, hospital stay, readmissions and re-operations in patients that underwent all three procedures.
A total of 2,433 bariatric procedures were performed during this period of time. There were no significant differences between the groups in terms of age, gender or BMI. Rosenthal explained that in his institution, banding is only applied to patients with a BMI 35-50, whereas LSG is applied to all patients including the high risk and RYGB is applied to all patients with a BMI of >35.
Outcomes
Of those procedures 1,492 were RYGB, 602 LSG and 339 LAGB. The number of readmissions was minimal in all three groups with RYGB 1.7 times, LSG 1.3 times and 1.5 times for LAGB. The percentage of procedures requiring reoperations due to complications or failures was 7.7% in the RYGB group, 1.5% in the LSG and 15.3% for the LAGB.
“LSG appears to have the lowest rate of re-operations when compared to banding and bypass, and surprisingly banding had the highest rate of re-intervention,” said Rosenthal. “The primary reason for removing bands was slippage, followed by failure and reflux.”
The outcomes also revealed that average postoperative length of stay was longer following RYGB (3.75 days) compared with LSG (3.4 days) and banding (1.47 days). The leakage rate was 0.4% for the RYGB and 0.3% for the LSG (leakage rates are not applicable for LAGB).
“One of the weaknesses of this study, as with all retrospective studies, is that patients were not randomised,” he explained. “Therefore, it could be that there is a patient population in one group or another that could trigger a difference in the outcomes.”
“However, I believe that this study adds to the body of evidence, which includes randomised studies and meta-analyses, that LSG is an outstanding treatment option for morbid obesity,” concluded Rosenthal. “I think the message from this relatively small study is that at this point LSG is the safest procedure when treating morbidly obese patients.”
