A lesson in how to justify selling more lap band devices

(What follows is an email I sent a good friend of mine. I then forwarded it to another friend who suggested I post it. Never one to be pointlessly disagreeable, I have posted it here as well.)

Last night I saw a news story that, if you haven’t picked up on it, will be something that interests you. The criteria for who is a candidate for lap band surgery is now up for revision as follows. The example given in the story was for a person 5’ 6”, which got my attention because that is my height. The current beginning of the range for being eligible for the surgery at this height is a weight of 220 pounds. The new eligibility being considered is a weight of 186 pounds and a body mass index of 30.

This is outrageous. I might have been eligible for surgery for my extra pounds? Really? I was 181 pounds with a BMI of 29. Yes, I was carrying more on my bones than was healthy, but to suggest I needed surgery to deal with it is anything but a healthy reaction. The folks at TSFL* should seriously pick up on this and call it for what it is. 

A friend of mine once weighed 400 pounds. Yes, she was an ideal candidate and lost half that amount post-surgery. However, it is not easy to maintain her new life because the mechanism controls her and not her own mind. She will have to live with this mechanical device inside her for the rest of her life because she was not on a program of behavior management, much less nutrition management.

It just so happens that the stock valuation for the company that makes this device shot up on the day this was announced. How sick is that? If you’ve got more than, say 25 pounds to lose, you can now consider surgery instead of simply taking the effort to learn better habits. The governing bodies that make recommendations for these devices and all kinds of medical and health-related issues are obviously happy to help the manufacturers boost sales. After all we have an obesity ‘epidemic’ thanks to our food policies and subsidies. Why not give people an easy fix for the problems we unwittingly foist on them in the first place?

I feel like I’m having a Susan Powter moment! (Remember her?) Stop the insanity!!!!

*TSFL = Take Shape For Life is the program I used to lose 25 pounds last summer. It was easy to follow and it worked for me.