Gastric Bypass Pros and Cons
By Patrick Glancy | August 19, 2008
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
According to Obesitysurgicalcenter.org, one third of the adult population in America is obese. Each year, obesity causes 300,000 deaths and 100 billion in healthcare costs. Gastric bypass and other similar surgeries are among the fastest growing elective surgeries in the country, next to breast augmentation. Gastric bypass is reserved for those who are considered morbidly obese. The chance to lose significant amounts of weight and improve their health appeals to so many, they are willing to risk their lives to have this surgery. According to Obesehelp.net, a web site which explains the surgery, 75% of patients can expect to lose up to 80% of their body weight, 80% will be off hypertension medications and 90% with type two diabetes will be off medication as well, just to name a few.
Not everyone who has this surgery is successful in weight loss for many reasons. The surgery can be complicated and dangerous as well. During the surgery, a section of stomach is sealed off to reduce the amount of food which can be eaten, if the seal is broken by over eating, the results can be serious and even fatal. This is why many patients have follow up education and care, including and overview of proper diet and exercise, before and after the surgery. Unfortunately many clinics neglect long term post care, however there are other ways of maintaining your healthy lifestyle.
Being obese does not always mean you sit down and eat two large pizzas, obesity can be caused by many things. For example, binge eating, genetics, lack of health education poor choices and emotional attachments to food. A healthy lifestyle is easy to learn simply by visiting with a dietitian to understand better choices or spend sometime with a personal trainer at a gym. The hardest part is to put the tools into action and begin making a better choice. Learning why you eat so poorly is a whole other issue in the weight struggle. Some people eat when they are upset or depressed and some might simply be bored. Maybe there is a happy memory associated with food which makes you crave certain things such as a Twinkie. Many have Gastric bypass surgery and are unsuccessful because they have not addressed all their issues with food, which requires help.
Some may choose to continue following up with a physician or counselor while other choose to go a different route such as using hypnosis. Hypnosis works with the mind in many different ways. One way it works is by addressing problems or emotions attached to food. Rarely does post care touch on the emotional bond a patient might have with food. Hypnosis researches and finds out why food has taken such a hold. Another way is by combating cravings for favorite foods and replacing those cravings with better healthier options such as exercise and health foods.
There are no limits when using hypnosis, as it deals with the mind making it very successful in those who are looking to lose weight or maintain weight loss. It works by helping you to see your memories, associations and feelings about food to improve in your life and choices. Some may feel counselor, dietitian and physician visits are the only way to insure a successful Gastric bypass surgery. Those visits should happen, but with hypnosis you gain a better understanding as to why you feel the way you do towards food and how you can regain control of your life and help make your Gastric bypass surgery the best it can be.
Losing weight is difficult enough without all the fad diets and gimmicks. Once you have made the decision to lose weight, be it with surgery or simply changing a few things, make sure you investigate all options for weight loss and find out what is best for you. If you do elect surgery, consider using hypnosis as a tool in addition to your arsenal again your battle with the bulge.
Topics: Stop Smoking | No Comments »
Quit Smoking for your Smile
By Patrick Glancy | August 18, 2008
Tobacco secession is a challenge facing many people today. Often people try to quit many times and for many different reasons. Some are quitting because they have been recently diagnosed with a health condition such as diabetes or heart problems. Others simply want to be healthier and avoid potential health problems such as Lung Caner and COPD. There is always a reason to quit, and BBC News just added one more, dental problems.
Across Europe, dentists conducted a research study to find out why so many patients were rejecting dental devices and procedures. They discovered smoking was the common link. BBC News reported the findings of the study, not only does smoking cause bad breath and teeth discoloration, but many other dental problems such as oral cancer, receding gums which leave the roots exposed, the diminished ability of taste buds and finally the rejection of dental devices and procedures.
People who are missing teeth or have lost a tooth due to an accident rely heavily on dental devices such as dentures and implants to improve their oral health. Implants are a new alternative to dentures of the past. Implants work similar to dentures, as they provide a false tooth to replace a missing one. They are used in people who have lost individual teeth, or to create a bridge and for better support to older dentures. Implants work by functioning as the “root” of the tooth because they are made from titanium and are implanted in the jaw. They are coated with a substance called hydroxyapatite which acts as the same chemical makeup of our own bones making the implants more effective than dentures.
Not everyone is a candidate for implants however. A prime candidate requires good healing and blood flow to insure the gum tissue heals properly without infection or rejection of the implant. Implant rejection happens more commonly in smokers. Smoking as well as other diseases such as diabetes, effect how the body heals and how the blood flows, thus resulting in a likely rejection.
Implant rejection may not effect all patients, but there are other procedures which are effected by smoking. Something as simple as a filling can be ineffective because of smoking, along with teeth removals, and gum disease. Antibiotics and topical treatments can also become useless because of smoking which can lead to more serious problems before, during and after dental procedures.
According to a study done by the American Dental Association, 32% of smokers needed to have a filling replaced, 10.1% needed a tooth extraction and 22.5% needed a major dental cleaning. Smoking can also be a factor in the loss of jaw bone, gum disease leading to tooth loss, and increased plaque and tartar build up. According to WebMD, 90% of patients with oral cancer use tobacco products and of those 90%, 37% who keep using tobacco products after having one cancerous lesion removed will develop another compared to 6% of those who quit smoking.
Quitting is the ideal way to combat these conditions. Another study done by the American Dental Association, 97.5% of patients who quite using tobacco, showed an almost complete reduction of mouth lesions (leukoplakia potentially cancerous mouth lesions) in just six weeks of quitting.
There are many ways available to quit smoking and your dentist can help you on your path. There are prescription treatments such as Zyban or Wellbutrin which can help curb cravings. There are also over the counter treatments such as the nicotine patch, gum and lozenges. Other treatments include hypnosis, acupuncture and herbal remedies. Patients should talk with their dentists or healthcare providers to find out the best way to quit for them. Since each person is different, each persons plan will be different. Some people use a combination of treatments to quit. Quitting smoking can be a difficult road, however it will get easier. The health benefits far outweigh the challenge.
Topics: Stop Smoking | No Comments »
Why Smoking Is Bad? - Some Things You Didn’t Know
By Clare Innes | August 17, 2008
I don’t want to bang on about what harm smoking can do to your body, because you are well aware of that already, I’m sure. The threats of the health hazards are so ‘old hat’ now that no-one even takes any notice anymore. Just one question from me though…in these days of health and fitness, why bother with your five portions of fruit and veggies, and going down the gym three times a week, if you’re not going to give up the ciggies?
Whilst all the messages of smoking causing ill-health are pretty much ignored nowadays, due mainly to overkill I think, I have included in this article a few of the lesser known problems that are caused by smoking:
What a lot of people don’t realise is that just one cigarette contains more than 4000 chemical compounds and around 400 of those are actually toxins (poison, to put it plainly). When you inhale on your cigarette, the tip burns at 700 degrees centigrade, whilst the core has a heat of around 60 degrees. What happens here is that the heat breaks down the tobacco to make various toxins, which are then concentrated towards the butt. You receive the worst of the ‘poison’ as you finish your cigarette.
The most damaging products are:
1) Tar, a carcinogen that causes cancer
2) The addictive substance is nicotine, which raises cholesterol too
3) The oxygen in your body is reduced by carbon monoxide
The problems caused by smoking can be influenced by:
1) How many cigarettes you smoke
2) Whether the cigarette has a filter or not
3) How has the tobacco been prepared
It has been shown that life expectancy can be improved by as much as seven or eight years if you do not smoke, but not only that, recent research has shown that if you continue smoking from a young age, people are dying of smoking related illnesses at much younger ages.
The number of people under the age of 70 who die from smoking-related diseases exceeds the total figure for deaths caused by breast cancer, AIDS, traffic accidents and drug addiction.
I know you’re all going to shout, ah c’mon at this one, but the ugly truth is this…if you started smoking at an early age, smoke more than 20 a day and inhale deeply, the greater your chances of getting lung cancer. It then takes roughly 15 years for your risk of getting lung cancer to drop to that of a non smoker.
Oral cancers (cancers of the mouth) are four times more common in smokers than non smokers, a fact that many smokers are unaware of. A disease called Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is also affected very badly by smoking, which is responsible for 80 percent of cases.
A further illness affecting the lungs is emphysema, which 94 percent of a pack a day smokers have when their lungs are examined post mortem (when they’re dead!). Compare that to a non smokers lungs of which 90 percent have little o none. Not too impressive huh!
When anyone ages, it is a natural process for their lung function to slowly reduce. However, for a smoker this can be as much as three times faster. Over years, you can expect to become more and more breathless, until needing constant oxygen, hospital care and then death due to slow suffocation…NOT GOOD.
Here’s one that I bet you guys didn’t know about (at least, not until it was too late!). For men in their 30s and 40s, smoking increases the risk of erectile dysfunction (ED) by about 50 per cent. Erection can’t occur unless blood can flow freely into the penis, so these blood vessels have to be in good condition. Smoking can damage the blood vessels and cause them to degenerate; nicotine narrows the arteries that lead to the penis, reducing blood flow and the pressure of blood in the penis.
Don’t think that because you have no problems now, that you won’t. Oh no…this narrowing problem increases over time so things could get worse later on (no apologies for scare tactics here). More importantly, a smoker with erectile problems should see a doctor, as this can be an indicator that cigarettes have already damaged other blood vessels, including those that supply blood to the heart.
The ’side-stream’ smoke that comes off a cigarette between puffs carries a higher risk than directly inhaled smoke, so you’re not doing your non-smoking partners, kids, friends, etc., any good either…feeling guilty yet…?
Children who grow up in a home where one or both of their parents smoke have twice the risk of getting asthma and asthmatic bronchitis. They also have a higher risk of developing allergies. Infants under two years old are more prone to severe respiratory infections and cot death.
It has been proven that the risk of lung cancer is increased amongst people who smoke ‘passively’ but as yet there is no proof of whether the risk of heart disease is also increased. You can be sure though, that you can look forward to a much healthier old age if you can stop smoking.
So after all this, what is my message? Well I hope to have given you one or two things that you had never thought of before to think about. There are folks out there who love you, and there are 100’s of stop smoking programmes to help you too. Go on, give it a go…and stop smoking now!
Topics: Stop Smoking | No Comments »
What Happens When You Stop Smoking?
By Charlie Reese | August 14, 2008
The Good and the Bad: What Happens When You Stop Smoking
When you are deciding to quit smoking you will probably weigh up the pros and cons of the situation. The pros would be all the health benefits that quitting smoking will give you. The cons would be the struggle that is quitting.
A lot of the time people put off quitting smoking because they never think that they will be the one to suffer the consequences of smoking. So exactly what happens when you stop smoking? There are both good and bad things that will happen when you decide to quit smoking.
Withdrawal Symptoms
The physical withdrawal symptoms that you experience when you decide to stop smoking are the result of nicotine residue in your body. A lot of the urges that make you want to light up are psychological. You feel compelled to smoke even though you don?t really need to.
You associate smoking with pleasant things such as having a drink with your friends or relaxing after work. These associations will make you want to smoke more when you have given up smoking. What happens when you stop smoking is an increase in irritability and anxiety.
The worst of it will soon be over however. Once your body gets rid of the nicotine residue you will stop feeling the physical withdrawal symptoms as much. This can take as little as two days. It depends on how much you smoke. The rest of the battle is purely psychological.
The Benefits
What happens when you stop smoking is not all bad. There are benefits that you feel almost immediately. What happens when you stop smoking is an increase in oxygen levels in your body, in eight hours you will find that the oxygen levels in your body have returned to normal and all the carbon monoxide has left your blood stream.
You will be amazed at what happens when you stop smoking in a relatively short time. Your energy levels will increase after about three days as your bronchial tubes relax and you can breathe more easily. All the breathing problems you experience due to your smoking will clear up in about three to nine months.
In the long term your health will also be benefit. A smoker?s risk of heart attack is higher than a non-smoker, a year after quitting you will reduce your risk of heart attack by half. After five years of being smoke free you will now have the same risk of stoke as a non-smoker. The road to recovery may be long but it?s worth it.
Topics: Stop Smoking | No Comments »
How to Handle Cravings When you Stop Smoking
By Roy Whithouse | August 13, 2008
Quitting smoking will almost always bring on harsh cravings. There’s no single way to handle withdrawal that is effective for everyone. Everyone has a unique way of quitting and an equally unique reaction to the drop in nicotine levels. Yet there are some methods that are useful for many people.
Smoking cigarettes is a habitual behavior. Even after you quit, the habit is set and you want to continue. For the first two weeks, as you eliminate the chemicals that have built up in your body, it automatically tries to revert to normal. This biological mechanism can be triggered to work in a variety of situations.
Homeostasis is the technical term. Your body is attempting to sustain equilibrium. When it experiences a drastic change, it tries to revert to normal. If you can acknowledge that this is a built in mechanism, you can use it to your advantage.
The anxiety and guilt that often accompanies the effort is part of the reason quitting smoking so hard. We are unsure whether or not we can stick to our decision and often feel out of control. Stress increases, such as those seen with a perceived lack of control, which causes us to want to smoke to deal with the stress. This creates a pattern that’s difficult to change.
The first couple of weeks, as these physical changes begin to take place, are the most difficult. Realizing that these things are out of our control, though we are still responsible for the commitment, can help get you through that trying time.
Try to minimize all other stressors during this period of adjustment. Don’t try to quit smoking if, for instance, you’re beginning a new job. Don’t take this on if you are facing a crisis, like a child having a serious medical procedure.
Use every healthy diversion possible.
Keep small pieces of fresh fruit with you at all times. When you feel the urge to reach for that cigarette, pop one instead. Sharp, tangy fruit is better than fruit that’s simply sweet or, worse, bland. Choose your favorite, although pineapple or oranges seem to work best.
When you are craving a cigarette, try listening to music instead. Focusing on a song and keeping busy will take up that three or four minutes you would otherwise spend smoking. During this period, your favorite music can help sustain you. Be sure to choose something uplifting. Negative music should never be played while in a negative mood, as it only serves to reinforce those negative emotions.
Small exercises can keep your hands busy. This could be as easy as using a stress-relieving hand spring or squeezing a tennis ball. Eventually, you should aim for exercises involving the entire arm, shoulder and back. This has two benefits, as it both eliminates the harm caused by cigarettes as well as helps restore your circulatory system.
Engage in an activity which requires intense concentration and suits your personality and circumstances; such as trimming a beard, fixing your hair to perfection, drawing a sketch or solving a math problem. The activity should be short, but be sure to leave little room for stray thought - including thoughts about that cigarette that you so desperately want to smoke.
If you keep your focus, the cravings will diminish to a tolerable level. Over the next few months, at random, you’ll experience a recurrence of these urges from time to time. When the need arises, return to the rituals that got you through the first few weeks. Remind yourself of the healthy advantages that come with not smoking. In no time, you will see that it outweighs the short-term advantages of smoking.
Topics: Stop Smoking | No Comments »
