Dangers of gastric band surgery

A gastric band, also called a lap band, is an inflatable silicone band surgically inserted around the top section of your stomach that creates a small pouch to restrict food intake.

In 2007, about 25 to 30 percent of the more than 200,000 bariatric surgeries (weight-loss surgeries) done in the U.S. used gastric banding.
Doctors say gastric banding is the least invasive form of bariatric surgery. With the obesity epidemic showing no signs of slowing down, many of those battling weight issues may be considering using a gastric band.
Obesity puts you at an increased risk of arthritis, depression, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, several forms of cancer, and many other diseases. It is a major public health crisis, but one that can be addressed without resorting to gastric band surgery, Dr. Joseph Mercola points out.
There’s always a risk when you go under the knife, but gastric banding and all types of bariatric surgery are fraught with a higher ratio of potential complications and risks.
One American clinical study that included a 3-year follow-up revealed that 88 percent of patients that tried a gastric band experienced one or more complications. 25 percent ended up having the gastric band removed permanently.
About nine percent of patients who had gastric band surgery had to undergo a second surgery to correct a problem with the band and/or a complication from the original operation.
Common gastric band complications are:

  • Band eroding into the stomach (1.3 percent, requires band removal)
  • Band slippage and/or pouch dilation (24 percent, requires another surgery)
  • Difficulty swallowing (9 percent)
  • Esophageal dilation and reduced esophageal function (11 percent)
  • Gastroesophageal reflux (34 percent)
  • Leaking or twisted access port into the stomach (9 percent)
  • Stomach obstruction (14 percent)

Other possible complications include bowel and gallbladder issues, fainting, infection, kidney stones, malnutrition, and an increased risk of death, Dr. Mercola warns.

Bariatric surgery is just a quick fix and is NOT an effective weight loss tool because of the many negative long-term health consequences associated with this type of procedure.
Losing weight is very simple, if you know what you need to do, says Dr. Mercola. The number one dietary enemy in America is fructose, which is believed to be the main culprit in the obesity epidemic. Avoiding or completely eliminating fructose from your diet will greatly help your weight loss efforts.

By: Dr. Mercola

CNN: Man refuses surgery and drops 270 pounds

Moncks Corner, South Carolina (CNN) — Bryan Ganey slowly climbed out of his parents’ car. Michael and Martha Ganey had driven their son to work because he wasn’t feeling well — for the past couple of days, simple tasks had left him short of breath and exhausted.

At 577 pounds, being out of shape was normal for Bryan, so he ignored it. But as he headed toward the door of his office on June 20, 2010, the ground suddenly shifted.
The Ganeys were pulling away when Martha’s cell phone rang. All she heard on the other end was gasping.

The couple stopped the car and sprinted back to the building, where they found their son lying in the bushes, struggling to breathe. The ride to the hospital took only five minutes, but to Martha, it seemed like hours. Bryan didn’t care how long it took — he knew he was going to die.

“I was absolutely convinced that I was having a heart attack. I had been told by doctors before that at my size, if I ever had heart problems, they weren’t going to be able to operate on me. So there was a very good chance that this was the end — that I would get there and there wouldn’t be anything they could do,” he said.

Out of control
For years, Bryan worked the night shift at a Verizon call center in Charleston, South Carolina, 20 miles from his home in Moncks Corner. He skipped breakfast, ate fast food for lunch and dinner, then picked up a pizza or some convenience store snacks on his way home. He often drank more than a gallon of soda a day. By the age of 37, he had a body mass index around 87. A BMI over 30 is considered obese.

“He was very aware that he had a problem,” Martha said. “It was out of control.” June 20 was possibly the best thing that could have happened to Bryan, although it certainly didn’t seem like it at the time. His “heart attack” was actually a pulmonary embolism, or a blood clot that had traveled to his lungs, blocking his oxygen flow. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “sudden death is the first symptom” in about a quarter of patients who have a pulmonary embolism.

For six days, Bryan lay in a hospital bed, covered in bruises caused by the blood thinners being pumped into his body. The blood thinners slowly cleared the blockage in his lungs, giving him plenty of time to think.

“At first, I felt like a victim, like somebody or something had done this to me,” Bryan said in a YouTube video about his experience. “But then reality set in and the pain turned to anger. My condition was unacceptable.”

Several doctors tried to broach the subject of weight-loss surgery while he was in the hospital, but Bryan refused. Both he and his mother had friends who had gone through the surgery and were suffering from complications. If I can make it out of here alive, he thought, I’m not coming back.

Small steps
Today, Bryan, 39, tells his story from the driver’s seat of a car that he wouldn’t have fit in two years ago . He shops for clothes at department stores, buys one seat on an airplane instead of two and sleeps through the night.

“The absolute best thing about all the weight that I’ve lost is just waking up every day and realizing that I don’t weigh 577 pounds anymore,” he said with a laugh. “The biggest rewards are the smallest ones.”

Small steps are what began Bryan’s weight loss journey. After leaving the hospital, he began to move — at first pushing a shopping cart around the grocery store like a toddler learning to walk. Then he ventured to the mailbox at the end of his driveway. Soon, he was conquering several miles at a time.

He lost 130 pounds in the first six months, then dropped another 140 pounds over the course of the next year. At 5-foot-8, Bryan now weighs just under 300 pounds.
“It turns out it really is true,” Bryan wrote in his iReport submission. “If you use more energy than you take in, you will lose weight.”

Bryan switched to a day shift at work to conquer his bad eating habits. He’s very particular about what he puts in his mouth, refusing to stray from self-prepared lean meats, vegetables and fruits. He eats five to six meals a day, every two to three hours. He measures his portions so that his total calorie count for the day hits 2,500.

“Food is everywhere,” he said, reflecting on his struggles to keep on track at work or in social settings. “I just can’t eat it anymore. I can’t do it ever again. I don’t have the ability to have just a little bit. They think I must be miserable because I … don’t allow myself to have certain things. [But] the benefits I have gained, the prize is worth the struggle.”

After dropping his first 70 pounds, Bryan decided to hire a personal trainer. This wasn’t the first time he had tried to lose weight by exercising, and in the past he had burned himself out pushing too hard, too fast. His trainer, Martha Peake, started slowly. At first, all they did was sit down and stand up. For the 500-pound Bryan, that was enough.

Last year, Bryan limped across the finish line of the 10K race he entered. This year, he plans to run the whole race. He’s still losing six to seven pounds a month and hopes to eventually get down to 200 pounds.

Simple prayers
Every morning, Martha wakes up and asks God to give Bryan one more day. She understands the obstacles placed before her son — most addicts can give up their abusive substance, but he can’t just give up food.

“I guess there’s always that little shadow of a doubt,” Martha said. “But I know also that he’s a very strong person … if it can be done, he can do it.” When Bryan returned to the doctor, the change in his blood work was almost unbelievable. He’s off many of the medications he was on before; his blood pressure medication has been cut four times over the last two years. His LDL cholesterol, the bad kind, is 100 — an optimal number.

Most importantly, at 577 pounds, Bryan was prediabetic. Now, he’s looking forward to a bright, diabetes-free future. “I think what gets lost in the advertisements and everything that’s written about weight loss is that if people would keep it simple, that everyone has that power in them. You can change your life.”

By: Ellen Crean

 

Hypnosis in the hospital

Prior to becoming a Consulting Hypnotist I was a Registered Nurse and had the good fortune of working at the prestigious Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. My diverse acute care experience included the wide array people and problems on an extremely fast paced general medical floor; an angioplasty unit as well as caring for an international patient population seeking state of the art intervention on their world renowned surgical thoracic unit.

During this valuable learning experience I learned first hand the hardship, stress and grief so many of these patients endured. Then once I became trained as a hypnotist I realized how beneficial hypnosis could be in the acute care setting.

If the rapid assembly line of the mainstream healthcare system has clinicians increasingly overwhelmed how about the physical and emotional state of those being cared for? What expectations do have for recovery? Do they see themselves as temporarily side tracked or powerless? Is there a role for them to play in their own recovery or do they leave their healthy well being in the hands of others?

The authoritarian approach to western medicine assumes that health and wellness comes from others which minimize the importance of our own natural ability to not only enhance the healing process but to avoid illness to begin with.

Hypnosis is a great personal tool of empowerment. It is the gateway to the ever powerful subconscious mind which is the control center for all bodily function and can be used to maximize the physical and emotional response to a speedy recovery.

With extensive experience in acute care facilities as a Registered Nurse and through many years in private practice as a Clinical Hypnotherapist I can clearly see the many positive applications of hypnosis in the hospital setting:

Intensive Care: Clients can block out distractions and increase their level of comfort which improves their ability to get quality rest and speed up recovery time. Hypnosis reduces stress; safely balances blood pressure and heart rate which helps minimize complications. It can also be used to reduce secretions, bleeding, optimize immune response and also make procedures more tolerable.

Oncology: Hypnosis lessens anxiety, pain, nausea, vomiting and reduces respiratory distress. It increases confidence and self-image and also eases the acceptance of physical restrictions and managing end of life transition. A study of women with metastatic breast cancer showed that those receiving hypnosis over a one year period were able to reduce their pain experience by 50% and in a 10 year follow-up the treatment group had a survival rate of 36.6 months compared to 18.9 months for those who did not receive hypnosis. (Speigel and Bloom 1983)

Pediatrics: What better gift to give a frightened child than control during a time of crisis. Children have active imaginations and respond very quickly and positively to hypnosis. It melts away fear; increases relaxation and focus making it easier for them to understand instructions, procedures and treatments.

Mental Health: Hypnosis relieves symptoms of sadness, fear, phobias and addictions. It puts the client in control. They get to play an active role in their own recovery, which adds to an increased sense of involvement and ability to establish positive change. Everyone feels better about themselves after hypnosis.

Surgical: Pre-surgical hypnosis reduces anxiety, pain, stress and bleeding. It promotes rapid healing and improved immune response. These clients can better manage post-op pain and nausea, use less medication and avoid the side effects that go with it. Those who are positive and relaxed going into anesthesia are positive and relaxed coming out of it.

“A more rapid return of post-op intestinal motility: 2.6 days vs. 4.1 days for those who did not receive hypnosis; length of hospital stay: 6.5 days vs. 8.1 days and an average savings of $1,200 per patient. (Disbrow)
“Hypnosis group did better than 89% of those who did not receive hypnosis. The data strongly support the use of hypnosis with surgical patients.” (Montgomery)

“Patients in the hypnosis group had significantly less vomiting, 39% compared to 68% in the control group, less nausea and less need of analgesics postoperatively. Preoperative hypnotic techniques in breast surgery contribute to a reduction of both post operative nausea and vomiting and postoperative analgesic requirements.” (Bjorklund)

“In the mid 1840’s John Elliotson and James Esdaile began using hypnosis in the surgical setting as an anesthetic with great success. Prior to their efforts mortality rate was 40%; with hypnosis it was 5%. In spite of their success hypnosis would soon take a backseat to either, nitrous oxide and chloroform by the late 1840’s.” (Kihlstrom)

By: Paul Gustafson RN CH

My first hypnosis experience

In 1990 I was in college and had to make a presentation. Public speaking had always paralyzed me with fear but there was no way around it this time. So I sought out a hypnotist and had 3 sessions. I did not know if it would really work until the day of the presentation. What a surprise. All the fear was gone and I was able to give my presentation without any problem at all.

At the conclusion there was even a light round of applause. I did not know if they were impressed with the content of my presentation or if they perhaps knew of my phobia, and were just glad to see me survive. In either case it was icing on the cake.

As a hypnotist I give presentations all the time and it is extra fulfilling to be able to help others overcome the same burden I once carried. I have assisted students in the same situation I was in, as well as high level corporate executives who tighten up in the conference room. I even had a physician who was terrified of speaking up at his weekly medical rounds.

By: Paul Gustafson RN CH