GASTRIC BYPASS SURGERY AND ALCOHOLISM: WEIGHT LOSS SURGERY ALCOHOL ADDICTION
DOES GASTRIC BYPASS SURGERY CAUSE ALCOHOLISM
Alcoholism and Gastric Bypass Surgery is a much talked about topic these days.
Gastric Bypass Surgery reduces the size of your stomach. Your food and beverage intake capacity is lowered after this bypass surgery for weight loss. You undergo a bypass surgery so you can lose weight. People who are obese and want to lose weight fast use this mode of weight loss. Most of these people are addicted to food. They eat too much and cannot curb their cravings. Gastric Balloon Weight Loss Procedure is a non surgical gastric weight loss process that may work for some patients.
If you are already consuming alcohol prior to your surgery, discuss with your surgeon about this. There are a number of case where gastric bypass patients have taken to alcohol big time. They have managed to replace their addiction to food with addiction for alcohol. Now with the reduced size you stomach after the surgery, alcohol tends to affects your senses much earlier compared to before the surgery. This transfer of addiction from food may not be limited to alcohol only. Gambling, shopping, sex may be the new addictions.
Put another way, since the small intestine is bypassed, the alcohol takes less time to reach your brain. So if you were an alcohol drinker prior to your gastric bypass, you may start liking the fact that you get a ‘kick’ really soon now! This could also be a cause for addiction to alcohol after  gastric bypass surgery.
So while you try to treat your overeating addiction with gastric bypass, you may just find yourself addicted to alcohol. Both are bad. Instead of trying to treat the symptoms, you must try and go to the root of the problem. You must see a counselor or an expert in this field and ask seek treatment for the addiction. True, not everyone gets addicted to alcohol after gastric weight loss surgery. But according to some research findings, between 5% to 20% of gastric bypass patients have been found addicted to alcohol. Their could be more addictions (other than alcohol) that may be embraced by a few other people.You must know more about the pros and cons of gastric bypass surgery. Also, Gastric Bypass is not cheap. Cost of gastric bypass surgery and insurance coverage (if at all) must be studied detail before you make up your mind.
In summary, do your home work. Seek professional advice on whether gastric bypass is the only alternative for your weight loss. Would you want to risk getting addicted to alcohol after weight loss surgery or would you just want to try treat you addiction to overeating before going for the gastric bypass?
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Gastric Bypass Types: Weight Loss With Gastric Bypass Surgery Gastric Bypass Surgery
Gastric bypass surgery is a surgery that is used to make the stomach smaller and bypass part of the small intestine. This surgery is commonly used for weight loss, mostly for patients who need to lose weight rapidly.
Since you stomach is now smaller, you will fell fuller sooner and hence eat less. Also, since the food particles now bypass a part of the small intestine, calories absorbed by the small intestines also are lower. This helps you lose weight. Look at gastric bypass surgery price for details on expense involved for this surgery. You must know about the pros and cons of gastric bypass surgery and talk to your surgeon about it.
Types of Gastric Bypass
- The most common type of Gastric Bypass Surgery is the Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RGB). Here a part of the stomach is stitched together to reduce its size. This limits your food intake. This operation is carried out with the help of a Laparoscope. This is an instrument that has a small telescopic lens and is very thin. This is used for surgeries where you have to make small incisions and are able to see internal parts without large cuts in your  to the body. The small intestine is also then attached to the stomach in a way that the food will not bypass the duodenum and a part of the jejunum. In short, this type of gastric bypass surgery, help you by reducing your food intake and absorbing less calories. The recovery time for this gastric bypass is lesser than the Extensive Gastric Bypass Procedure.
- Extensive gastric bypass or biliopancreatic diversion is a complicated surgery. Here, the lower part of the stomach is removed surgically. The remaining part of the stomach, which is a small pouch, in the connected to the last part of the small intestine. This completely bypasses both the duodenum and the jejunum. This advantage of this type of bypass surgery is the weight loss is more rapid compared to the Roux-en-Y gastric bypass. But this comes along with the risk of causing nutritional deficiencies.
Gastric bypass surgeries typically reduces weight over a couple of years. It has been found that people who underwent these types of gastric bypass surgeries have lost about two thirds of their weight over 2-3 years.
If you are looking for a non surgical procedure you may be interested to know more about gastric balloon weight loss procedure.