Playing With the Band
By DIANA ZUCKERMAN
NYT
Washington
AS millions of us try to lose the weight we gained over the holidays, the Food and Drug Administration is due to make a decision with implications for those tipping the scales into obesity: whether to approve gastric lap bands for people who are just slightly obese. These devices are now approved only for dangerously obese adults, with a body mass index of at least 35.
Like gastric bypass surgery, a lap band reduces the size of the stomach so that eating a large meal is impossible. As a result, patients sometimes lose 100 pounds or more within a year, and that weight often stays off at least another year.
The surgery is more effective for most people than diet, exercise or diet pills. And since lap bands are less invasive, expensive and risky than gastric bypass, it is reasonable to ask whether the F.D.A. should approve the product for people seeking less drastic weight loss. Last month, an advisory panel said it should.
If the agency bases its decision on science rather than sympathy, however, it will reject the recommendation — because there is no research proving that a lap band provides slightly obese patients with long-term health benefits that are greater than its risks.
(More here.)
NYT
Washington
AS millions of us try to lose the weight we gained over the holidays, the Food and Drug Administration is due to make a decision with implications for those tipping the scales into obesity: whether to approve gastric lap bands for people who are just slightly obese. These devices are now approved only for dangerously obese adults, with a body mass index of at least 35.
Like gastric bypass surgery, a lap band reduces the size of the stomach so that eating a large meal is impossible. As a result, patients sometimes lose 100 pounds or more within a year, and that weight often stays off at least another year.
The surgery is more effective for most people than diet, exercise or diet pills. And since lap bands are less invasive, expensive and risky than gastric bypass, it is reasonable to ask whether the F.D.A. should approve the product for people seeking less drastic weight loss. Last month, an advisory panel said it should.
If the agency bases its decision on science rather than sympathy, however, it will reject the recommendation — because there is no research proving that a lap band provides slightly obese patients with long-term health benefits that are greater than its risks.
(More here.)
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