Obesity is a rising global epidemic globally. An unhealthy lifestyle and poor dietary habits are mainly to blame to this condition. It is a dangerous condition as it can lead to several adverse health conditions. If you are overweight, you need to lose weight immediately if you want to live a healthy and disease-free life.
However, this is easier said than done. There are many diets and weight loss plans in the market that offers effective weight loss. But most of these plans require major effort and discipline from your side. Also, if you are morbidly obese, these diets may not work for you. In such a case, you have to go in for surgical intervention. These procedures can help you shed off your excess kilos. This, in turn, will help you to reduce your risk of many avoidable diseases. Weight loss surgeries are also called bariatric surgery.
Types of bariatric surgeries
There are basically two types of bariatric surgery. One limits the amount of food that the stomach can hold and the other shortens or bypasses a part of the small intestine. In the former, you are unable to consume as much calories as you used to. In the latter case, your body absorbs less calories and nutrients.
Let us take a look at the most common types of weight-loss surgeries.
Gastric bypass surgery
In this procedure, a surgeon will make your stomach small. He will do so by making a small pouch right at the top of the stomach. He will then cut the small intestine below the main stomach and connect it to the new pouch. The food you eat will enter only the small pouch and it will go directly to the intestine from there. In other words, it bypasses your main stomach. This ensures that your body absorbs less nutrients and calories.
Gastric banding
Here, a band with an inflated balloon is placed in the upper part of the stomach. This results in the formation of a small pouch above the band with a very small opening to the rest of the stomach. Then a surgeon will place a port under the skin of the abdomen. A tube will connect this port to the band. The balloon is inflated and deflated to adjust the size of the band. This is done by injecting or removing fluid through the port. This procedure ensures that your stomach holds less food. As a result, you feel full and eat less.
Sleeve gastrectomy
In this procedure, a surgeon will remove a part of the stomach. He will then press the remaining part of the stomach to a tube-like structure. Again, here too, your stomach loses the ability to hold a lot of food. It will make you eat less by increasing the sense of satiety.
Published : November 15, 2019 9:16 pm
