In today’s world one of the most urgent health issues is obesity, a condition that not only is extremely hazardous for bodily functions but for the government’s pockets just as much. Several treatments, diets and routines have been developed to burn fat, but there’s still debate regarding which is more effective. For instance, a recent study shows that the gastric bypass works better than the gastric banding when it comes to losing weight.
The study focuses on seeing which of the two procedures are the most effective. Gastric bypass and gastric banding are two popular procedures in the U.S. employed to limit the amount of food the stomach can hold.
The report, published this Monday in the Archives of Surgery, looked at more than 400 patients in Switzerland, who had undertaken surgery between March 1998 and May 2005. Half of the patients had received a gastric band while the other half had the Roux-en-Y procedure, also known as a common gastric bypass.
The Wall Street Journal writes that the study showed the “gastric bypass is associated with faster and more sustained weight loss than gastric banding”. Researchers found out that six years after undergoing a gastric bypass, patients have recorded a faster and greater weight loss, compared to patients who received a gastric band.
Scientists looked at their patients’ BMI to see how the two medical procedures were improving their lives. BMI stands for Body Mass Index, a criteria which measures the body fat by using a person’s height and weight. Basically, if your BMI is 30 or higher, you are considered obese.
Based on the BMI readings, scientists observed that after starting with patients at an average BMI of about 43, one year after the average BMI in the bypass group dropped below 30, while those in the gastric band group had a BMI of about 34. Meanwhile, cholesterol levels remained constant in patients in the gastric banding group and decreased in patients in the gastric bypass group.
The study also pointed out that “maximum weight loss was achieved after an average of three years for the gastric band patients, compared with 18 months for the bypass group”.
