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Consuming Alcohol And Obesity Surgery May Turn Out To Be A Dangerous Mix

After years of debate we are finally coming around to the unavoidable conclusion that surgery is the only truly effective and lasting answer to the problem of morbid obesity. And not before time!

At the moment obesity is possibly the leading health problem in the Western world and in the USA alone approximately 60 percent of the population is overweight, with nearly 24 percent being obese and 3 percent severely obese. Now 3 percent may not appear to be large figure but when you realize that it is in excess of 9 million extremely obese people this is a fairly major problem.

Despite the fact that more and more attention is being focused on the problem of obesity and its cure, it is surprising how much we are still learning about the condition, including the affects of alcohol on people who have undergone weight loss surgery.

For some time now there has been a fair amount of anecdotal evidence to suggest that people who have undergone gastric bypass surgery are affected more by alcohol but it was not until late last year that any real attempt was made to assess the extent of the problem.

In a reasonably small-scale study the affects of alcohol on 19 people who had gastric bypass surgery was compared to the affects on 17 control subjects. The people in the study each drank a small 5 ounce glass of red wine and their breath alcohol was then analyzed at 5 minute intervals until it had fallen back to zero.

The study discovered that alcohol levels peaked at a higher level in the gastric bypass patients and also took far longer to fall back to zero. However, most interestingly, the study also found that just }a single|one} small glass of wine was enough to push the breath alcohol level in several gastric bypass surgery patients above the legal alcohol level for driving in several US states.

The explanation for the raised affects of alcohol on gastric bypass surgery patients is quite simple to understand as surgery both reduces the size of the stomach and bypasses a section of the intestine, both areas of the body that play a significant role in breaking down alcohol before it finds its way into the bloodstream.

So just what does this mean for gastric bypass surgery patients?

Well, aside from the clear need to take care and most definitely to avoid driving after drinking even very small amounts of alcohol, the implications for gastric bypass surgery patients do in fact go a bit wider.

A particular problem is that alcohol is a relaxant and this leads to difficulties with post-surgical weight loss and to maintaining weight loss. Because alcohol relaxes the stomach, which includes the lower esophageal sphincter, and the intestine, patients who enjoy alcohol can eat more and alcohol effectively counteracts the affects of surgery. As if this was not bad enough many people become more active socially following surgery and this generally means an increased intake of alcohol.

There still needs to be a great deal more research carried out of course but, at the end of the day, the simple fact is that people who have weight loss surgery must be aware of the risks of alcohol and watch their consumption accordingly.

GastricBypassFacts.info gives considerable information on gastric bypass surgery including what you might expect by way of gastric bypass cost


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