As Bariatric surgery widens its reach in diet and weight loss culture, the psychological risks for many patients increase dramatically.
Originally, these surgeries were meant to be last ditch efforts for people with very high weight and clear and evident medical risks. When weight leads to organ failure and shortened life, it makes sense to consider drastic options. But these circumstances are very rare.
Acceding to the lure of financial gain and a completely new surgical speciality, doctors have increased the type of surgeries and the people eligible for them as well. It’s clear that medicine does not have a clear handle on the long-term anatomical and medical risks associated with these procedures. The siren call of permanent weight loss—without any factual basis to the long-term benefit of surgery—is enough to pull in a multitude of desperate patients.
What these surgical centers lack is a thorough psychological screening for their patients. Having performed several of them and reviewed many others, the centers expect a cursory screening at best. Surgeons and hospitals don’t want to know about latent eating disorders or even more obvious ones. They want to check the necessary boxes and perform more surgeries.
Our culture prays upon people unsure of themselves who have determined that they can manage their own personal limitations by losing weight. Since diets never work, people seek out more desperate measures as time goes on. One increasingly common decision is to research Bariatric surgery.
The surgeons don’t seem to realize they are exploiting cultural vulnerabilities for their own professional gain rather than helping people manage their own health and longevity. Bariatric surgery may have its place in very specific situations, but the overall message of a quick surgical fix to a cultural problem only reinforces the cynical nature of our diet culture.
No comments:
Post a Comment