More kids having weight-loss surgery

The importance of this article cannot be overstated. Seriously.

"Children are only considered candidates for surgery after they have spent six months trying to lose weight through conventional methods under hospital supervision. But so far, not a single one has slimmed down enough to take surgery off the table, said Dr. Jeffrey Zitsman, associate attending surgeon at Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital."

Here is some of what this article says.

First, even hospital supervised weight loss programs are doomed to fail. This is, arguably, proof of my contention that all expert diets are wrong. Supervision does not get more intense than hospital supervised, unless one is incarcerated 24/7. Hospital supervision brings the full force of the sick care system into play and it fails, by its own admission, 100% of the time.

Second, rather than look to why the system fails, the sick care establishment chooses to mutilate our children by exposing them to surgical violence.

Third, it points to parental failure to control the harmful behaviors that place children at risk and suggests that parents add to the risk.

Fourth, it patently places the responsibility of rescuing these kids on the rest of society when it is obvious that the sick care system and parents are to blame.

This sanctioned attack on children and failure of the system to correct its flaws is emblematic of the issues.

If we do not resolve these matters, we are doomed to fail in overcoming the overweight/obesity epidemic.

And that will drive the whole system under.

We must fix these flaws and withhold every penny of public payment for these lunacies.

Of the 53 kids attacked in this study, 19, or 36%, suffered complications.

"Of the patients who participated in the NYU study, two needed a second operation to adjust a slipping band; two developed hernias; five got an infection; five suffered mild hair loss and four had iron deficiencies related to their new diet. After the study was complete, one patient asked to have her band removed because of discomfort, said Evan Nadler, a pediatric surgeon and co-author of the study.

Nadler said those complications were minor compared to the chronic diabetes and cardiovascular disease teens would face if they remained that heavy into adulthood."

And the researchers then lie. It is an absolute physical impossibility not to lose weight if one consumes fewer Calories than one burns. Impossible. So these kids could not have "tried everything they could possibly try." How desperate is the sick care system that it is willing to earn dollars at the cost of physically disfiguring children?

"'These are people who have tried everything they could possibly try,' he said, noting that their mean weight at the study's start was 297 pounds. 'Once they reach this level of morbid obesity, the vast majority go on to be obese adults,' he said.

Thomas Wadden, an obesity expert at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, said surgery can be of immense benefit to some teens, especially those already experiencing health problems.

But he also advised caution.

Egged on by TV shows and commercials expounding the benefits of weight-loss surgery, adult patients have begun showing up at Penn's Center for Weight and Eating Disorders demanding an operation as an easy first step to thinness.

'When we ask them, 'What have you done so far to lose weight?' The patients say, 'Nothing,'' Wadden said. 'They're going right to a $25,000 operation for which they are ill-prepared.'"