I can’t speak for doctors everywhere but in my experience doctors are not trying to push bariatric surgery on people who doesn’t need it. If anything they’re gatekeeping that as well since some people mistakenly believe it to be an easy way of doing weight loss. The doctors I speak of are all operating inside a public healthcare system though and I’m sure things are different at private clinics where people pay money up front themselves.
Someone near and dear to me recently had bariatric surgery after a years-long process of tests and assessments. Although it has a lot of nasty side effects their quality of life has improved immensely. They’re able to move around freely in ways they couldn’t before, their body doesn’t hurt all the time, they are mostly rid of their painful oedemas, their self-image has improved incredibly and their chance of living to know their potential grandchildren has increased significantly.
their chance of living to know their potential grandchildren has increased significantly.
This is fairly doubtful
Participants included 21,837 matched surgery and non-surgery pairs. Follow-up was up to 40 years (mean [SD], 13.2 [9.5] years). All-cause mortality was 16% lower in surgery compared with non-surgery groups (hazard ratio, 0.84; 95% CI: 0.79-0.90; p < 0.001). Significantly lower mortality after bariatric surgery was observed for both females and males. Mortality after surgery versus non-surgery decreased significantly by 29%, 43%, and 72% for cardiovascular disease, cancer, and diabetes, respectively. The hazard ratio for suicide was 2.4 times higher in surgery compared with non-surgery participants (95% CI: 1.57-3.68; p < 0.001), primarily in participants with ages at surgery between 18 and 34 years.
While a 16 percent decrease is better than nothing, it means that there is no survival impact for 84 out of 100 people even though they are presumably no longer obese or overweight.
Maybe “significantly” is too positive a word, ultimately that’s a question of semantics. Either way, the other benefits are very likely to make the surgery worth it for people. The person I know has told me how they felt literally trapped inside their own body before as the obesity made moving around hard and painful, triggering their PTSD which probably shares an origin with the obesity. In my experience (and your mileage may vary) it has made them a much happier person.
I’m not saying that everyone who are unhappy with their weight should have bariatric surgery. It is not an easy and risk-free solution and an amount of gatekeeping is warranted. However it does have its place as a treatment for patients who are impaired by their obesity an for whom less radical methods has proven ineffective.
I can’t speak for doctors everywhere but in my experience doctors are not trying to push bariatric surgery on people who doesn’t need it. If anything they’re gatekeeping that as well since some people mistakenly believe it to be an easy way of doing weight loss. The doctors I speak of are all operating inside a public healthcare system though and I’m sure things are different at private clinics where people pay money up front themselves.
Someone near and dear to me recently had bariatric surgery after a years-long process of tests and assessments. Although it has a lot of nasty side effects their quality of life has improved immensely. They’re able to move around freely in ways they couldn’t before, their body doesn’t hurt all the time, they are mostly rid of their painful oedemas, their self-image has improved incredibly and their chance of living to know their potential grandchildren has increased significantly.
This is fairly doubtful
While a 16 percent decrease is better than nothing, it means that there is no survival impact for 84 out of 100 people even though they are presumably no longer obese or overweight.
Maybe “significantly” is too positive a word, ultimately that’s a question of semantics. Either way, the other benefits are very likely to make the surgery worth it for people. The person I know has told me how they felt literally trapped inside their own body before as the obesity made moving around hard and painful, triggering their PTSD which probably shares an origin with the obesity. In my experience (and your mileage may vary) it has made them a much happier person.
I’m not saying that everyone who are unhappy with their weight should have bariatric surgery. It is not an easy and risk-free solution and an amount of gatekeeping is warranted. However it does have its place as a treatment for patients who are impaired by their obesity an for whom less radical methods has proven ineffective.