Thursday, December 2, 2010

Big pharma company Allergan — of Lap-Band fame — wants you classified as 'obese'

Posted By on Thu, Dec 2, 2010 at 10:42 AM

Allergan, a pharmaceutical company peddling the Lap-Band procedure (though its best known for Botox), is petitioning the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to lower qualifications for obesity surgery. But, what's in it for the company? Well, if more people are eligible for their procedure, insurance companies will be more likely to cover the costly ($12,000-$20,000) surgery and — bingo — the company's balance sheet will benefit.

Meanwhile, the people I've known who've endured bariatric surgery match national statistics: Some do great, some lose a little weight then gain back more and others have ongoing, life-long health problems.

But, don't the benefits of weight loss far out weight the risks of the surgery? Meh. At best, the Lap Band procedure can help a person lose about 30 percent of their body weight — if all goes well. That might sound great if you're moderately overweight, but for morbidly obese people that's not a significant enough drop to justify the risks. (Example: A 400-pound man could expect, at best, to lose 120 pounds; a lot of weight, but he'd still weigh 280 and would still be obese.)

Meanwhile:

Some doctors are dropping the band, in part because some older studies suggest that up to a third of patients eventually have the band removed because of side effects or ineffective weight loss. While about one in 1,000 patients die within 30 days of surgery, a survey of members of the bariatric surgery society suggested that deaths occurring later are under-reported.

“Before they start putting the Lap-Band on patients who are 50 pounds overweight, the public has to be made aware of how dangerous this is,” said Stephanie Quatinetz, a New York lawyer whose daughter, Rebecca, died at age 27 in August 2009, two months after getting Lap-Band surgery.

Allergan, known mostly for its Botox product, which is approved for cosmetic and medical ailments like chronic migraines, wants to reverse slowing sales of the Lap-Band that the company attributes to the weak economy. In the first nine months of this year, sales of its obesity products, mostly Lap-Band, fell 4 percent, to $182.4 million.

Read the rest of this New York Times article, by Andrew Pollack, here.

Ultimately, Lap-Band forces people to eat less, though they still have to exercise more to achieve the weight loss they desire. Additionally, for a couple weeks before the surgery they're on a liquid diet. There's also plenty of eating issues that come after the surgery that are relatively gross; You have to chew your food just so, you can only eat a tiny amount unless you're into vomiting, etc. And, as mentioned above, some people manage to usurp the surgery and re-gain the weight they lost.

In the end, what we have here is a diet where people are eating less and exercising more — which is the only way to lose weight, but the diet, itself, can lead to all sorts of complications traditional diets don't include.

So the surgery helps with a jump start, but is it worth it? And, do we want pharmaceutical companies making that call? Something else to consider: Should insurance companies flip the bill for people who want bariatric surgery for strictly cosmetic reasons or for people who aren't willing to do the hard work associated with weight loss?

Here's 'BandedWendy' on the good, bad and ugly aspects of Lap-Band surgery:

Rhiannon "Rhi" Bowman is an independent journalist who contributes snarky commentary on Creative Loafing's CLog blog four days a week in addition to writing for several other local media organizations. To learn more, click the links or follow Rhi on Twitter.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Pin It
Submit to Reddit
Favorite

Comments

Showing 1-1 of 1

Add a comment

 
Subscribe to this thread:
Showing 1-1 of 1

Add a comment

Creative Loafing encourages a healthy discussion on its website from all sides of the conversation, but we reserve the right to delete any comments that detract from that. Violence, racism and personal attacks that go beyond the pale will not be tolerated.

Search Events


www.flickr.com
items in Creative Loafing Charlotte More in Creative Loafing Charlotte pool

© 2019 Womack Digital, LLC
Powered by Foundation