Bariatric Surgery Basics and Weight Loss

Bariatric Surgery is mainly recommended if you're morbidly obese and if basic lifestyle changes are no longer enough to lose the excess Weight. Generally those with a body mass index of 40 or more qualify for Bariatric Surgery. You should also keep in mind that while Bariatric Surgery helps you lose the excess Weight, you'll still need to eat healthier and exercise more to keep the Weight off after the Surgery.

When you meet with the doctor to discuss the Surgery, he'll tell you about the risks. Some of the common symptoms that may occur after the Surgery include nausea, lightheartedness and stomach cramps. You should also consider your budget because the average price of the Surgery can be in the tens of thousands of dollars and your health insurance provider may not cover it.

Bariatric Surgery seeks to restrict the amount of food and nutrients you store in your body. In gastric banding, the surgeon places a band around the top part of your stomach. The most popular form of gastric banding is LAP BAND. Gastroplasty, or stomach stapling, is when the surgeon seals off part of your stomach with staples, which is similar to gastric banding. In gastric bypass Surgery, the surgeon removes the small intestine temporarily then attaches it to the stomach pouch and this helps you digest food better.

Once the Bariatric Surgery ends, you won't be able to consume coffee, soft drinks and tea for the first three months because this may cause your stomach size to increase. You'll also be put on a liquid diet which will include protein shakes, water and soups. Then you'll be able to eat soft solid foods before going back to your regular diet. Another thing you'll want to do is eat slowly and eat in smaller portions. Be sure to stop eating when you're full because your stomach is smaller.

One benefit of this kind of Weight Loss Surgery is that you reduce the health risks associated with obesity such as diabetes, kidney failure and sleep apnea. Bariatric Surgery also makes it easier to consume food without re-gaining the Weight, and you can move around better because the excess Weight is gone. You reduce the pressure on your knees and legs, and you're not as fatigued as you were before the Surgery. Most importantly, Weight Loss Surgery restores your self-esteem.

It's important to research different Bariatric surgeons to make sure they're licensed and certified. Read customer reviews of different Bariatric doctors to see what customers said about these physicians. Ask friends who have had the procedure done and get recommendations from them.

A few months after the Surgery, you want to continue to exercise and eat healthier meals. Also meet with a psychotherapist to discuss the root of the Weight gain so that you won't return to emotional eating as a way to relieve stress and anger. Get help from relatives when you're tempted to go back to your old ways. A support group is important so that you don't fall back into old habits.

How To Lose Weight Fast

Drink 8 to 10 glasses of water everyday. This is on top of juice or milk that you are going to drink. There is no better substitute for water but water itself. The body needs to be constantly hydrated in order to effectively metabolize fats. Drinking a glass of water before eating can help your digestive system to work properly and can even make you feel full even before eating. This way you can lessen the portion of your meal by a considerable amount.

• Eat your breakFast. The most important meal of the day is the breakFast so never ever skip it. If you have a full breakFast, you will have the needed energy for the rest of the day and you don't have to grab anything in sight before your next meal. You will have a lesser craving for food if you eat on time and you eat sensibly. You don't need to stick to 3 big meals and feel hungry in between if you can have 5 small portions to eat. Eating without feeling too much hungry can make you full even with a small serving of food only. This way you can avoid overeating.

- Use smaller plates in eating. The way you look at things can affect the way you think. Eating a full meal in a small plate is like eating one big serving. The thought that you consumed all the food in your plate can give you the concept that you ate a lot. So the next time you eat, choose a smaller plate, with a little serving of food it may look full already. In addition, food served in colorful plates can tickle your appetite so better start using neutral colors as it can dampen your appetite unconsciously.

- Read carefully. Food items can be found all over, ready to be picked by you. But do not be deceived by the flashy "sugar free", "fat free", "low calorie", "salt free" and "low fat" labels that you can see. Make sure to read the labels carefully. They may be low in fat but rich in calorie or vice versa. You should be wise enough not to be deceived easily by soda products claiming to be sugar free but high in calorie content. The key in reducing Weight is to reduce in calorie intake - always remember that.

- Be easy on yourself. You cannot change your eating habit overnight so go slow with the process until you get used to it. Don't punish yourself if you miss out on something, instead test your will power to see how determined you really are in losing Weight.

Dietary Weight Loss Drugs and Medical Malpractice

The weight-loss industry is booming in the United States, and probably will continue to grow as the nation experiences what the Surgeon General has deemed an "obesity epidemic." As a result, drug makers are constantly seeking to develop and market that lucrative "magic pill" that will facilitate Weight Loss.

In fact, drug companies have been marketing diet pills in various forms for more than twenty-five years, and desperate patients have been more than willing to try them, often with tragic consequences. Sadly, in a quest to become healthier, unwitting users have subjected themselves to dangerous diet Drugs, experiencing not an improvement in health, but rather serious health problems and even death.

In 1992, for instance, pharmaceutical companies marketed two diet pills called Fenfluramine and Phentermine, to be used in combination and therefore dubbed "Fen-Phen." Unfortunately, tens of thousands of Americans have suffered very serious injuries from taking these diet Drugs and similar ones. These injuries include heart valve damage and potentially fatal primary pulmonary hypertension (PPH).

It is unclear how many deaths have been directly attributed to extended use of fenfluramine but in 2004 a Texas jury awarded $1 billion to the estate of a deceased woman after finding that Fen-Phen caused her death. Many Fen-Phen users face heart valve replacement surgery, and countless others now live in fear because they do not know what will happen if their disease progresses. Thousands of others remain unaware of their injuries because they have not yet had the Medical testing required for proper diagnosis-often an echocardiogram, which is, in essence, a noninvasive and painless ultrasound examination of the heart.

There is strong evidence that some of the companies involved in marketing and selling Fen-Phen knew that these Drugs were causing serious, even fatal, injuries, and that they deliberately concealed that information from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to protect their profits. Fenfluramine and dexfenfluramine were removed from the market in September 1997, at the request of the FDA, but by then significant damage was done, and thousands of Americans suffered needless, but very serious, injuries.

There have been many individual lawsuits seeking diet drug-related damages, and there have been class action lawsuits as well, in which large groups of injured individuals have joined together to sue the same manufacturers. A class action lawsuit is a case in which there are one or more persons named as plaintiffs in the complaint, the document that officially starts the lawsuit, but the case is actually pursued on behalf of many other persons with similar claims. The persons named on the complaint are the "class representatives," and their claims must arise from circumstances similar to those of the other class members.

Generally, individual plaintiffs need not take any formal action to join in class action litigation, but rather they automatically become members unless they formally opt out. Rarely, a class action will be limited to those plaintiffs who expressly choose to opt in. Potential class members are often notified by letter informing them in writing of any action they need to take. Not all individuals are best served, however, by national settlements of class actions, since they may not fairly compensate the most seriously injured diet drug users. It is important to note that class action settlements are binding on all persons who do not "opt out."

All diet drug users should consult with their physicians about the risks of taking any prescribed or over-the-counter weight-loss medications and submit to any recommended follow-up testing. If ill effects are experienced or discovered through examination and testing, the victim must act immediately to protect his or her legal rights as well. If you have suffered damages as a result of a diet drug, it would be prudent to seek legal counsel right away.

When seeking an attorney to represent you, be sure to investigate his or her background in products liability law, especially with regard to Drugs and pharmaceuticals. Inquire about his or her track record so that you can make an informed decision about whether this is the right person to steadfastly stand up against a big pharmaceutical company that has many more resources than you do to fight the charges against it. Only with an experienced advocate on your side can you be sure to achieve an outcome that best compensates you for your losses.