Food intolerances two years after gastric bypass (PS - No, really?)

Apparently this concern with gastric bypass patients hasn't been "well-studied."

Hey researchers - PLEASE SEEK OUT PATIENTS WHOM COMPLAIN OF EXACTLY THESE ISSUES FROM DAY ONE.  

Because, uh, *putting on my Dr. Google Hat* they're totally normal and expected, or so we thought?  Or am I living under a rock where it's that we're not supposed to live with digestive distress most of the time?I suppose this is my bias because I live as a distressed patient, with a distressed patient, and know mostly only distressed patients?  And WHAT IS GOING ON WITH THE FOODS LISTED IN THIS STUDY!?

I am using a lot of question marks lately.  I need to stop that.

Discuss.

Study blurb via Reuters -

(Reuters Health) - A common weight loss surgery is associated with long-term gastrointestinal problems and food intolerance, a recent study suggests.

Researchers examined data on 249 extremely obese patients who had what’s known as laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass, which reduces the stomach to a small pouch about the size of an egg.

Two years after surgery, these patients had lost about 31 percent of their total body weight on average. But compared to the control group of 295 obese people who didn’t have operations, the gastric bypass patients were far more likely to experience indigestion and an inability to tolerate multiple foods.

“It was already known from previous studies that the Roux-en-Y gastric bypass might aggravate gastrointestinal symptoms after surgery,” said lead study author Dr. Thomas Boerlage of MC Slotervaart in Amsterdam.

Full - http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/bjs.10419/full

 

 

Instantblog

Alright guys, who is going to send me this?  Can you feed a family of seven in an InstantPot?  Tell me more.  I need to know all about this thing.  These things.  All the things.  Amazon linkage below will send you to the product page.  Comments are entertaining as always. 

 

Worth a read. New York Times article about a year in the life of bariatric surgery

Worth a read, and worth a watch.  This mimics a bit of my experience, my family's experiences, and brings up some (deeper) questions.  As someone who's had gastric bypass in 2004, I'm always intrigued at any new science that's discovered about the gut - brain connections.

"Nearly 200,000 Americans have bariatric surgery each year. Yet far more — an estimated 24 million — are heavy enough to qualify for the operation, and many of them are struggling with whether to have such a radical treatment, the only one that leads to profound and lasting weight loss for virtually everyone who has it. Most people believe that the operation simply forces people to eat less by making their stomachs smaller, but scientists have discovered that it actually causes profound changes in patients’ physiology, altering the activity of thousands of genes in the human body as well as the complex hormonal signaling from the gut to the brain."

Article - New York Times

It starts early

Sharing Daddy's #questprotein shake diluted

A video posted by Beth Sheldon-Badore (@mmbbgc) on Dec 6, 2016 at 4:30am PST

Sharing Daddy's #questprotein shake diluted

A video posted by Beth Sheldon-Badore (@mmbbgc) on Dec 6, 2016 at 4:30am PST

The costs of obesity

A shocking report.  

"Obesity and excess weight is an expanding health problem for more than 60 percent of Americans, and a new study by Hugh Waters and Ross DeVol finds that it's a tremendous drain on the U.S. economy as well. The total cost to treat health conditions related to obesity—ranging from diabetes to Alzheimer's—plus obesity's drag on attendance and productivity at work exceeds $1.4 trillion annually. That's more than twice what the U.S. spends on national defense. The total, from 2014 data, was equivalent to 8.2 percent of U.S. GDP, and it exceeds the economies of all but three U.S. states and all but 10 countries. The report also highlights how this public health challenge can best be addressed."

Is obesity something that we should be tackling?  My gut (no pun intended) says OMG OF COURSE YES, because we are looking at some very preventable disesases.  Those are some cah-razy numbers.  However, does the pharmaceutical industry care?  I mean:  obesity is Big. Money. 

Read the report:

http://assets1b.milkeninstitute.org/assets/Publication/ResearchReport/PDF/Weighing-Down-America-WEB.pdf