Wow

[tikistitch]

Researchers study benefits, risks of teen weight-loss surgery

CINCINNATI, Ohio (AP) -- Seventeen-year-old Amanda Munson gained confidence and energy as she lost 40 of her 296 pounds after weight-loss surgery and her diabetes went into remission.

"People have told me I not only look thinner, but I seem to glow -- maybe because I'm so much happier," she said. The 5-foot-5 high school senior from nearby Burlington, Kentucky, hopes to lose 75 to 100 more pounds.

Munson is the first of 200 teenagers who will be enrolled in a five-year, federally funded study on the benefits and risks of bariatric surgery on adolescents....

Recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggest that about 2 million U.S. adolescents may be severely obese and have complications of obesity previously seen only in adults.

While adult weight-loss surgery still is more common, an estimated 2,744 youngsters nationwide had the operations from 1996 through 2003, with the pace tripling between 2000 and 2003, according to an earlier study co-written by Inge.

The doctors expect their research will show that severe obesity in teens is associated with medical and psychosocial problems which may be more effectively treated during adolescence than waiting until adulthood.

"What's fascinating is that teenagers already can have a half-dozen complications of obesity that the surgery within months _ if not weeks -- can remedy," he said Inge, who has been performing the surgery on adolescents for five years.

We were just kinda wondering about this the other day, whether they had tried bariatric surgery in kids. It seems a bit extreme, after all, you're still growing at that age, and the procedure interferes with your ability to absorb nutrients. On the other hand, it sounds like the little girl was already suffering from Type II diabetes, and that's some nasty shit. Hmmm.

Also reading this much less troubling article about kids playing DDR in PE class.

As for Mr. Tikistitch's world famous Run Your Ass Off Diet, it's week 15, and we're down 35 pounds. (Though, we were bad this weekend and ate too much bruschetta, plus 1/2 bottle of that neat fizzy Shiraz the waitress talked us into trying.) Funny thing is, we're down to approximately the same weight we were throughout much of high school, when tiki's Mom famously spent a lot of her sadly limited supply of mental energy fretting over tiki's embarrassing fatness. We now think our mom badly needed a hobby.

Comments

[moonlightnrain.livejournal.com]

Okay, so I'm giving up alcohol for my birthday this year (I'm afeared I'm heading from hypoglycemia into diabetes, and alcohol isn't helping), but before I do I want to try this fizzy Shiraz of which you speak. That is, if it's not too dear.

Remember the name?

[tikistitch.livejournal.com]

I don't remember the exact label, but what she called it was "sparkling shiraz." You can google the term and find a lot of labels if you want. I guess it's traditional in Italy (I'd drunk sparkling white wine there, but never sparkling red wine), but the wine was actually from Australia.

Not something I'd consume regularly: since it's fizzy, you'd want to finish the bottle when you open it, which if fine for a special occasion, but I don't usually have that much wine with dinner.

[moonlightnrain.livejournal.com]

Thanks, dear, I appreciate it!

[girlontheleft.livejournal.com]

I'd be concerned because, for every case of severe childhood obesity with a legit claim to the surgery, there's gotta be a hundred similarly obsessive Moms who would see it as a quick fix for their kid's mild "baby fat." (To say nothing of girls with body-image disorders themselves!) There's huge potential for a shady lil' cottage industry in there, I'm sure.

[tikistitch.livejournal.com]

Given that kids that young are already having nose jobs and boob jobs, I'd say, yeah, that's definitely a worry.