Alcohol And Weight Loss Surgery May Be A Dangerous Mixture

By Author: Donald Saunders
Total Articles: 84
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After many years of debate we are finally coming around to the unavoidable conclusion that surgery is the only really effective and lasting answer to the problem of severe obesity. And it is most certainly not before time!

Today obesity is probably the number one health problem in the industrialized world and in the US alone nearly 60 percent of people are overweight, with nearly 24 percent being obese and 3 percent severely obese. Now 3 percent might not appear to be large figure but when you consider that it is in excess of 9 million extremely obese people this is a pretty major problem.

In spite of the fact that more and more attention is being turned towards the problem of obesity and its cure, it is surprising just how much we are still learning about the condition, including the affects of alcohol on people who have undergone gastric bypass surgery.

For some time now there has been a reasonable amount of anecdotal evidence that people who have had weight loss surgery are more susceptible to the affects of alcohol than others but it was not until late last year that any attempt was made to look at the ...
... extent of the problem.

In a reasonably small-scale study the affects of alcohol on 19 people who had undergone weight loss surgery was compared to the affects on 17 control subjects. The people taking part in the study were each given a 5 ounce glass of red wine and their breath alcohol was then analyzed at 5 minute intervals until it fell back to zero.

The study showed that alcohol levels reached a higher level in the weight loss patients and also took much longer to fall back to zero. Perhaps most interestingly, the study also showed that just }a single|one} small glass of wine was enough to put the breath alcohol level in a significant number of weight loss surgery patients over the legal limit for driving in several US states.

The explanation for the heightened affects of alcohol on weight loss surgery patients is quite simple to understand as surgery reduces the volume of the stomach and bypasses part of the intestine, both areas of the body that are responsible for breaking down alcohol before it gets into the bloodstream.

So just what does this mean for weight loss surgery patients?

Well, aside from the clear need to exercise caution and certainly to refrain from driving after drinking even very small quantities of alcohol, the implications for weight loss surgery patients do in fact go a bit deeper.

A particular problem is that alcohol is a relaxant and this can lead to difficulties with post-surgical weight loss and to maintaining weight loss. As alcohol relaxes the stomach, including the lower esophageal sphincter, together with the intestine, patients who enjoy a drink are able to eat more and the presence of alcohol effectively counters the affects of surgery. As if this were not bad enough a lot of people become more active socially after surgery and this sometimes means an increased consumption of alcohol.

There will still need to be considerably more research carried out of course but, in the end, the fact is that people who have undergone gastric bypass surgery must be aware of the risks of alcohol and adjust their lifestyle accordingly.