No doubt today’s youth are getting fatter, and childhood obesity is reaching epidemic proportions. According to the North American Association for the Study of Obesity (NAASO), over 15 percent of America’s children and adolescents are considered clinically obese, while even more youngsters are considered to be overweight. The importance of these figures becomes clearer when we realize they represent a threefold increase from just 30 years ago. Is weight loss surgery the answer for our morbidly obese youth?
In addition to the psychological consequences, such as depression, low self-esteem, and poor body image, obese children face health consequences too. Diabetes, hypertension, and high cholesterol levels are being seen in younger children, and many also live with sleep apnea and orthopedic problems. This is where weight loss options such as Coolsculpting can be used. A completely safe and affordable way to rid of your belly fat by freezing it. Moreover, you also get the option of CoolSculpting arms and armpit fat that will help you in getting a better shape as quickly as possible.
In February 2007, the Associated Press released an article that indicates a growing number of doctors are supportive of weight loss surgery for children. In 2004, just 350 kids in the U.S. had weight loss surgery. But with improvements in the techniques of weight loss surgery, a growing number of young people are going under the knife in their effort to combat obesity. Although many have been very pleased with the results, not everyone is anxious to subject a growing body to such serious surgery.
The two types of weight loss surgery are gastric bypass and laparoscopic gastric banding. Simply put, gastric bypass makes the stomach smaller by sectioning off the upper part of the stomach using staples. A section of the small intestine is then connected to the small pouch. When food is eaten, it goes from the pouch through the new connection to the small intestine, bypassing the lower portion of the stomach. Gastric banding involves laparoscopically installing an elastic collar around the stomach, essentially limiting the amount of food and drink a person can consume.
Weight loss surgery alters the digestive tract, and there is still little known about the long-term effects on adolescents. Although laparoscopic gastric banding is the least invasive of the two types of weight loss surgery, complications do occur, and the death rate is about 1 in 1,000 patients. The most common complications with laparoscopic gastric banding are more surgery to adjust a slipping band, hernias, infections, iron deficiencies and hair loss related to nutritional deficiencies.
Among the risks of gastric bypass surgery are bleeding, infections, follow-up surgeries to correct complications, gallstones resulting from significant weight loss in a short amount of time, iron or vitamin B12 deficiencies that can lead to anemia, and calcium deficiency that can contribute to the development of early osteoporosis or other bone disorders.
Proponents and supporters of weight loss surgery for children argue that these complications are minor compared to chronic diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and the other physical and emotional problems adolescents face if they remain clinically or morbidly obese into adulthood. Health care professionals also contend that once a child reaches the point of morbid obesity, the chances are he or she will go on to be a morbidly obese adult.
Although weight loss surgery is believed by a growing number of health care providers to be immensely beneficial to some kids, virtually all of them caution against weight loss surgery for the sole purpose of thinness as extolled by the media and popular society. It is also important that psychological issues be addressed prior to any weight loss surgery.
