Gastric bypass surgery is a weight loss procedure that results in major changes not only in the body, but also in ones lifestyle. To be able to adapt well to those changes, a patient needs to bear in mind these guidelines that ensure success after the surgery. Success means maintaining a healthy weight and preventing the possibility of regaining weight.

1. Avoid foods that are not nutritious. The culprits for weight gain are foods and liquids that are rich in calories, fat, and sugar. These include soda, milk shakes, alcohol, and sugar-rich desserts. These foods do not provide nutrients; instead, they cause hunger pangs and vomiting. Avoid them so that you do not out your weight loss effort to waste. Make sure that your diet is rich in protein, and include lots of fruits and vegetables.

2. Avoid foods that cause discomfort. Sticky, dry, and fibrous foods such as pasta, rice, bread, and meat are usually a no-no for bypass surgery patients. Soda is also not allowed because it causes bloating, gas pain, and even pressure in the stomach.

3. Avoid snacking between meals. This will only hurt your chances of keeping a healthy weight.

4. Avoid drinking liquids immediately before, during, or after meals. Filling your stomach with liquids instead of foods will deprive you of your much-needed nutrients for healing and recovery. Be sure to drink fluids at least 30 minutes before and after your meals. And of course, avoid drinking fluids while eating meals.

5. Refrain from drinking alcoholic and caffeinated drinks. Alcohol does more harm than good for people who have gone through weight loss surgery. Devoid of calories, alcohol can cause stomach ulcers. Caffeine have the same effect, aside from working against hydration in the body.

6. Contact your surgeon if problems arise. If you experience one or more of the following problems, call your surgeon immediately: extreme pain in the legs, shortness or difficulty of breathing, fever, bleeding of the incisions, and dark stools.

7. Maintain your follow-up visits after the surgery. This will make it easier for you and your surgeon to monitor and assess your progress. Also, this will result in early detection of problems such as surgical complications and nutritional deficiencies.

8. Keep yourself from getting pregnant for two years following surgery. Because your body is undergoing weight months after the surgery, it may not be able to support a baby. This will be unhealthy for both of you and the fetus. Ask your surgeon for advice in case you plan on getting pregnant.

9. Join a support group. Coping with the aftermath of the surgery may be much easier if you do it with the help of other people. There are many support groups formed to provide emotional support and advice for people who have undergone weight loss surgery. Search for these groups on the Internet; for sure, you can find one within or near your locality.

10. Find ways to cope with stress. Stress usually leads to comfort eating, which is not good for people who have had weight loss surgery. Listen to your favorite music, read books, meet up with friends, and do whatever you can to effectively deal with stress.

You will get the best results from gastric bypass surgery if you follow the guidelines mentioned above.

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It’s been quite noticeable in some celebrities: the sudden weight loss and return to a svelte figure is often touted to the result of liposuction or a lot of dedication in the gym. But there are some celebrities that have gone that extra mile and had a gastric bypass. That may sound like some sort of heavy surgical procedure but it’s actually one of the more easy to handle weight-loss surgeries.

Getting a gastric bypass is a pretty simple process you just have to go to your local hospital and consult with a surgeon. They obviously won’t just let you have one willy-nilly, of course, there are several guidelines that limit the administering of a gastric bypass procedure to someone. The main things that restrict any prospective recepient of the procedure are the following: the patient must have been obese for more than five years, the patient must also not have a history of alcoholism and psychological disorders.

Finally, the person should not be younger than eighteen years old and no older than sixty-five years old. If you fit all of these categories, you’ll also be judged if you have exhausted all other weight-loss measures for yourself. This is because it may be one of the safer surgeries that can be done, a gastric bypass is still a major operation and cannot be taken lightly.

If you do pass all of these tests, then you’ll be up for the procedure. Here’s a simple explanation of it: it is essentially, having your stomach capacity lessened and making your digestive tract skip a part of your small intestine. To go into the nitty-gritty of it, the procedure creates a small pouch in the upper part of your stomach, usually via surgical staples or a plastic band. This stomach pouch is usually small it can get to the size a walnut for some procedures. After this pouch is created, the middle of your small intestine, the jejunum, is connected to it. This means your food will skip the main part of your stomach and your duodenum, the upper portion of your small intestine. The result is lower stomach capacity and a lower calorie intake. You will be able to satisfy your appetite more quickly and have less calories inside your system, creating a consistent and quick weight loss for you until your body has adapted to it.

It may sound easy but still it’s a long road after a gastric bypass. After the four-hour operation you will be under observation for the next few days, while being limited to liquids only so that your stomach can heal. After five days you can be released from the hospital but your ordeal won’t end there. For the next twelve weeks, you will be following a diet that will slowly progress you from liquids to solids, getting you new stomach used to the strain.

Even then, you will have to deal with some of the side-effects your whole life lower energy intake can be detrimental to your health, while over-eating can cause you to vomit or feel great pain, so a gastric bypass should be a last resort for anyone who’s suffering from obesity.

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Want to lose weight but afraid to go under the knife? Listen up. Your long-time battle with the bulge will end for good with one solutiongastric bypass surgery. It involves changing the digestive system to change your appetite; that way, you eat and digest less amount of food. Aside from the significant weight loss, the surgery also helps minimize the risk of developing obesity-related diseases.

Also called the Roux-en-Y surgery, the procedure primarily entails making a walnut-sized pouch at the upper stomach and putting a bypass around a portion of the small intestine and the stomach. Consequently, the food you eat bypasses most of the stomach and restricts the ability of your digestive system to take in calories. Hence, the term bypass surgery. Surgeons perform this operation using a small tube called a laparoscope that creates small incisions in the abdomen.

A small video camera is attached on the instrument, and this device enables the surgeon to see the inside of the abdomen. The laparoscopic technique is generally preferred over the traditional open bypass surgery that makes large incisions in the abdomen. Compared to the open bypass surgery, the laparoscopic technique is less risky and less painful because of the small incisions. Also, it results in shorter recovery period.

The procedure starts with the stapling of the patients stomach at the top to seal this area off from the rest of the stomach. As a result, the sealed portion or the pouch will be able to contain only an ounce of food. Separated from the entire stomach, the pouch is then connected to a small part of the small intestine. To be able to achieve that, the surgeon cuts a small part of the small intestine and sews it onto the pouch.

The surgery is not for everyone, though. There are certain risks involved; and a prospective patient must understand them before undergoing the surgery. If you plan to undergo the weight loss surgery, consult a surgeon and ask all your concerns regarding the procedure. Usually, the surgeon explains the things you should expect during and after the surgery.

Before the surgery, you will be given anesthetics to keep you asleep during the operation. The anesthesia is usually in the form of an intravenous (IV) line or analgesics. During the procedure, the surgeon inserts a tube into your nose down to the top of the stomach. To heal the staple line on the stomach, the tube is joined to a suction machine that empties the stomach pouch after the surgery. The surgery lasts for about two to four hours, but you will need to stay in the hospital for around three to five days for recovery.

Expect some diet and lifestyle changes after the weight loss surgery. One to three days after the procedure, you will not eat anything to allow your stomach to heal. Then, for about three months, you will follow a diet that starts with liquids, progresses to soft and pureed foods, and lastly to regular foods. You will have to be cautious with your food intake because eating huge meals can cause extreme pain under the breastbone and vomiting.

Also, you will notice some changes in your body and behavior three to six months after the gastric bypass surgery. These include dry skin, hair thinning, fatigue, body pains, and mood swings. These will be your bodys reactions to the quick weight loss resulting from the surgery.

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Gastric bypass surgeries and other weight loss medical procedures being performed in the United States are increasing for the last few years. This may be in response for the increase in the number of people suffering from obesity. According to the American Society of Bariatric Surgery, there are about 140,000 gastric bypass being performed every year.

Those who have undergone weight loss surgeries, lose about 50 to 60% of their body weight, a year after the surgery. Along with the weight loss, they would also be losing ailments associated with obesity like high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke, heart diseases and even cancer.

The Procedure

The most common gastric bypass performed is called the Roux-en Y gastric bypass. In this procedure, a small pouch is created on the top of the stomach. It is stapled, to seal it off from the rest of the stomach. This small pouch will no longer digest any food. The upper part of the small intestine, the duodenum, is attached to this small pouch.

When eating, the food would bypass the small pouch in the stomach and the upper portion of the small intestine. The food would go directly to the middle section of the intestine called the jejunum. Since it is the small intestine that does the absorption of minerals, vitamins and calories, the body will absorb limited calories only. A Y formation is formed just below the stomach.

Incisions are made in the abdomen to perform the procedure. Surgeons will be using the laparoscope or a small, tubular instrument with a camera. This will enable the surgeon to see the abdomen and perform the surgery. The laparoscopic gastric bypass actually makes the stay in the hospital and the recovery period shorter and quicker.

There are still open gastric bypass performed, however, there could be wound-related problems with this kind of procedure. The laparoscopic gastric bypass surgery is performed under general anaesthesia. The procedure lasts for about four hours. Patients who have undergone the procedure stay in the hospital for about two to six days to be monitored for any complications.

After the Surgery

Having a smaller stomach has effects on how much food the patient can eat. There are special diets that a patient recovering from gastric bypass surgery follows. Every food that the patient would eat will be important for his nutrition. There are times that they are also recommended nutritional supplements to avoid deficiencies like anemia or vitamin deficiency.

There are patients reporting weight loss of as much as 50 to 60 percent a year after the surgery. There are even some who would report an astounding 80% weight loss. However, it is still possible for patients to stretch their stomachs and have that large size again. There is still a possibility of getting back those lost pounds. That is why doctors would recommend dietary restrictions and exercise plant that would keep the pounds away.

There are also tendencies that gastric bypass patients would develop gallstones, stomach ulcers, hernia or nutritional deficiencies. The part of the stomach which was bypassed can get enlarged, it could cause bloating and hiccups. There is also the Dumping syndrome which happens when the food moves quickly to the small intestine. This can happen after eating foods high in sugar or fat.

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