Obesity, in simple terms, is the presence of more fat than the body needs. Morbid obesity is more complicated; it is described as a condition in which the Body Mass Index (BMI), the quantifiable measurement of the level of obesity, is between 40 and 49.9. According to Morbid Obesity Info, a person who is overweight by 100 pounds or more is considered morbidly obese. This kind of obesity is also referred to as clinically severe obesity or Class III obesity. In the U.S., 6 million people are classified as severely obese.
Treatments
Morbid obesity is a condition in which traditional and non-interventional treatments, such as exercise and dieting used to treat lower grades of obesity, often don't work by themselves. Once a person becomes morbidly obese, he is usually unable to do exercises that would help lose weight, and his body has become conditioned to require more food, so portion control and diet is very difficult. As a result, in many cases, more drastic action is called for.
According to the American Society For Metabolic And Bariatric Surgery, surgery is the only proven line of treatment for the morbidly obese. This surgery may need to be supplemented with lifestyle changes, such as diet and exercise, as well as medication and liposuction. The downside to surgeries are potential dangers associated the the procedure, including heightened risk of cardiovascular disease, along with symptoms such as diarrhea, pneumonia and other ailments. Other potential side effects that can occur during the surgery itself range from splenetic wounds to intestinal bleeding.
Gastric Bypass
Also known as Roux-en-Y bypass surgery, gastric bypass works by restricting food intake. Food enters the stomach through the esophagus and leaves it through the duodenum. This surgery slices the stomach into two pieces, one small and one large. The small piece, which is cut off from the big one, now becomes the "new" stomach, and is only capable of absorbing 5% of the capacity of food as the original stomach. The starting point of the small intestine is also cut up and attached to the new, "small" stomach. The whole function of the original stomach is thus bypassed. This is a virtual rearranging of the structure of the digestive system to facilitate weight loss and help the morbidly obese.
Gastric Band
This surgery staples the stomach to make it shrink. This works in three ways. First, it creates a kind of "pouch" in the stomach, which allows you to achieve a feeling of fullness sooner. It squeezes the size of the stomach to a fraction of its original size, making the stomach incapable of accommodating the quantities of food it was used to. Finally, it nearly kills appetite. After placing the band, the surgeon stitches the wall of the stomach, keeping it in its place.
