Irvine, CA - [May 22, 2007]


Khaliah Ali, fashion designer, author and daughter of former heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali, experienced a life-changing "moment of truth" the year after her son was born. At 335 pounds, more than 100 pounds heavier than her father's best fighting weight, Ali feared her battle with weight would prevent her from seeing her son grow up. Like others who are more than 100 pounds overweight, this "moment of truth" drove Ali to recognize the severity of her fight with obesity and seek a solution.


Now more than 100 pounds lighter, Ali has teamed up with ObesityHelp, a leading resource for obese individuals, and Allergan, Inc., the makers of the LAP-BAND® Adjustable Gastric Banding System for the "Moment of Truth" obesity health education campaign. This campaign aims to help the millions of individuals who are more than 100 pounds overweight recognize the physical and emotional impact obesity has on their lives and motivate them to engage in discussions with their healthcare professionals about appropriate, safe and effective weight-loss solutions.


"It took me more than 30 years to reach my 'moment of truth' and realize the impact obesity had on my life both physically and emotionally. Until then, I was constantly fighting my weight, trapped in an endless cycle of diets and exercise, and humiliated by the misperception of others that I simply lacked will power," states Ali. "No matter how hard I tried, I was losing the fight against obesity and feeling a deep sense of shame and helplessness. I truly felt like a part of me was dying inside."


Ali is not alone in her fight, as obesity continues to be a growing national epidemic. In the United States, approximately 60 million adults are obese and 9 million are severely obese. This chronic disease is caused by any one or a combination of environmental (social and cultural), genetic, physiologic, metabolic, behavioral and psychological factors and in 2000 cost this country an estimated $117 billion in direct and indirect costs. Unfortunately, these costs are not expected to decrease anytime soon. A RAND study, recently published in Public Health, analyzed data collected between 1986 and 2005 in the United States from a household telephone survey. The results showed that the prevalence of individuals with a self-reported Body Mass Index (BMI) over 30 (classified as obese) increased by 24 percent between 2000 and 2005, but the prevalence of those with a self-reported BMI over 40 (classified as morbidly obese) increased by 50 percent. In addition, people who are significantly overweight or obese face serious health consequences, including increased risk for Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, sleep apnea and premature death.


Like Ali, many individuals cycle through ineffective diets and despite consistent efforts to lose weight, many struggle for years or sometimes a lifetime with obesity. In 2004, tipping the scales at more than 270 pounds, Ali fought back with the help of the LAP-BAND® System procedure, the only FDA-approved adjustable gastric band for use in weight reduction for severely obese adults, and ended her battle with obesity.


"I now have the tool I need to win my fight against obesity and achieve sustained weight loss," states Ali. "By sharing my journey, it is my hope to help others reach their own 'moment of truth' and see the possibility of life without obesity."


While obesity is now recognized by leading government health authorities, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and National Institutes of Health (NIH), as a disease, unfortunately, treating this disease remains a challenge. The NIH has reported that people in weight-loss programs lose only about 10 percent of their body weight and gain most of it back within five years. For people who are morbidly obese, or more than 100 pounds overweight, weight-loss surgery has become a clinically-accepted effective treatment option for long-term weight control. According to a report published by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, data strongly supports surgical treatment as a superior option for weight loss and to help control co-morbidities associated with excess weight, like Type 2 diabetes and hypertension, in morbidly obese patients. "Obesity is the greatest national health issue facing this country; yet, there is a tremendous lack of knowledge among the obese and primary care physicians about safe and effective weight-loss options," said George Fielding, M.D., Associate Professor of Surgery at New York University School of Medicine and Ali's surgeon. "It's critical that those fighting the battle with obesity understand the fight is not hopeless and proactively speak with their doctor about a weight-loss treatment that will work for them. Obesity is a disease and needs to be identified as such by both the medical and patient communities."

by Nanci Hellmich / USA Today
May 2, 2006


Adjustable gastric banding is much more effective long-term than a very low-calorie diet for people who are about 50 pounds overweight, a study shows.


Medical guidelines support this surgical procedure -- which puts a band around the top of stomach to create a feeling of fullness -- in patients who are extremely obese, about 100 or more pounds over a healthy weight, or those who are almost as overweight and have serious medical conditions, such as type 2 diabetes.


Researchers at Monash University Medical School in Melbourne, Australia, recruited 80 patients who were on average 52 pounds over a healthy weight. Half had the laparoscopic adjustable gastric band surgery.


The other half followed a medical program that included a variety of strategies such as a very-low-calorie diet (500 calories a day) with liquid meal replacements, prescription weight-loss medication and behavioral therapies.


Findings in today's Annals of Internal Medicine:
After six months, both the surgery patients and the low-calorie dieters lost an average of 14% of their starting weight.


After two years, the gastric band patients lost 22% of their starting weight. That was about 87% of their excess weight, or roughly 45 pounds. They also showed marked improvement in their health and quality of life.
At the end of two years, the dieters had regained much of their lost weight but were still 5.5% below their starting weight. They had lost 22% of their excess weight, or about 12 pounds.


Researchers are still analyzing the weight-loss data. "I'm very happy that the gastric band patients are continuing to maintain their weight loss," says lead author Paul O'Brien, director of the university's Centre for Obesity Research and Education. Since the study, he received grants from INAMED Health, maker of the LAP-BAND® System.


In this study, the surgery was as safe as the diet program, but O'Brien notes the procedure does carry risks, and some may need follow-up procedures, such as readjusting the band position. The surgery costs $14,000 to $18,000 in the USA, he says.


Insurance companies vary widely in coverage of gastric banding or gastric bypass, a more complex surgery that creates a much smaller stomach and rearranges the small intestine. Average cost: $26,000. Under certain conditions, Medicare covers both surgeries.


Many surgeons in the USA use gastric bypass because bypass patients lose more weight overall and lose it faster, says Neil Hutcher, president of the American Society for Bariatric Surgery and a surgeon in Richmond, Va.


Thomas Wadden, an obesity expert at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia, says gastric banding "is a very effective procedure, but it's not a rational, cost-effective solution to the epidemic of obesity."


"Because we have limited health-care dollars, we have to decide how best to invest them. Are we going to provide bariatric surgery for a relatively small number of people or instead invest in the prevention of obesity so our children hopefully won't need this surgery?"


Copyright © 2006 USA Today. All rights reserved.

Department of Surgery, California Pacific Medical Center, San Francisco, CA, USA.


BACKGROUND: The vertical gastrectomy http://www.alighterme.com/surgery_vg.html (VG) is the restrictive part of the technically difficult biliopancreatic diversion with duodenal switch operation (DS). The VG was originally conceived of as an independent operation-the first stage of a two-stage DS that would reduce mortality and morbidity in the high-risk superobese because of a shorter operating time and no anastomoses. This article presents two-year data after VG. METHODS: Laparoscopic VG was performed in a nonrandomized fashion in obese patients that met the NIH criteria for bariatric surgery. By using 5-7 firings of 45-60-mm linear 3.5-mm GI staplers along a 32-Fr bougie, a greater-curvature gastrectomy is performed and a 60-80-ml gastric tube is created. VG was compared to adjustable Lap-Band placement, Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RGB), and DS. RESULTS: Between November 2002 and August 2005, 216 patients underwent VG. The mean age was 44.7 years (range = 16-64) and 173 (80%) were female. The mean preoperative weight and body mass index (BMI) was 302 +/- 77 lbs and 49 +/- 11 kg/m2, respectively. Of the 216 patients, 5 (2.3%) had a BMI > 80 kg/m2, 6 (2.8%) had a BMI of 70-80 kg/m(2), and 25 (11.6%) had a BMI of 60-70 kg/m2. The mean operative time was 66 +/- 11 min (range = 45-180) and the mean length of hospital stay was 1.9 +/- 1.2 days. Complications occurred in 20 (6.3%) patients (vs. 7.1% after Lap-Band). Leaks occurred in 3 (1.4%) VG patients, reoperations were performed in 6 (2.8%), and no conversions to open or deaths occurred. Weight loss on par with the DS and RGB was achieved with just the VG alone. CONCLUSION: The VG operation is able to achieve significant weight loss comparable to the RGB and DS operations but with the low morbidity profile similar to that of Lap-Band placement.

Assoc Press
Updated: 2:02 p.m. PT Aug 22, 2007


LOS ANGELES - The first long-term studies of stomach stapling and other radical obesity treatments show that they not only lead to lasting weight loss but also dramatically improve survival. The results are expected to lead to more such operations, possibly for less severely obese people, too.


Researchers in Sweden and the United States separately found that obese people who underwent drastic surgery had a 30 percent to 40 percent lower risk of dying seven to 10 years later compared with those who did not have such operations.


The research, published in Thursday’s New England Journal of Medicine, should put to rest uncertainties about the benefits and risks of weight-loss surgery and may cause governments and insurers to rethink who should qualify for the procedure, some doctors said.


“It’s going to dispel the notion that bariatric surgery is cosmetic surgery and support the notion that it saves lives,” said Dr. Philip Schauer, director of bariatric surgery at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, who had no role in the research.


More obesity surgeries
Obesity surgeries have surged in recent years along with global waistlines. In the United States alone, 177,600 operations were performed last year, according to the American Society for Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery. The most common method was gastric bypass, or stomach-stapling surgery, which reduces the stomach to a small walnut-sized pouch and bypasses part of the small intestine where digestion occurs.


The Swedish study is the longest look yet at how obesity surgery affects mortality.


Researchers led by Dr. Lars Sjostrom of Goteborg University compared 4,047 people with a body-mass index over 34 who had one of three types of surgery or received standard diet advice. BMI is a standard measure of height and weight and a BMI over 30 is considered obese.


After a decade, those in the surgery group lost 14 percent to 25 percent of their original weight compared to 2 percent in the other group. Of the 2,010 surgery patients, 101 died. There were 129 deaths in the comparison group of 2,037 people.


In the U.S. study, Ted Adams of the University of Utah led a team that looked at 7,925 severely obese people in the state who had gastric bypass . They were matched with similar people who did not have the operation and who were selected through their driver’s license records listing height and weight.


After an average of seven years’ follow-up, 213 people who had surgery died compared to 321 who did not have the procedure. The study did not look at weight loss.


Deaths from disease drops
Deaths from diabetes in the surgery group were dramatically cut by 92 percent; from cancer by 60 percent and from heart disease by 56 percent. Surprisingly, the surgery group had a higher risk of death from accidents, suicides and other causes not related to disease. The researchers were puzzled by this.


Both studies were done before surgery advances that have led to smaller incisions and faster recovery time. Experts say future long-term survival rates from obesity surgery should be even better.


While neither study was the gold standard test, where patients are randomly given one treatment or another, surgery’s dramatic benefits make it ethically hard to deny patients the operation, said Dr. George Bray of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center at Louisiana State University.


Herb Olitsky, a 53-year-old business owner from New York City, credits his improved lifestyle to gastric bypass .


A diabetic, Olitsky was given months to live after developing a life-threatening bacterial infection near his heart muscles.


Olitsky, who stands 5 feet 8 inches, underwent stomach-stapling surgery in 1999 and went from 520 pounds to his current weight of 160. He no longer struggles to walk a quarter block and has managed to control his blood pressure and heart rate.


“I knew I had to get it and that’s what’s kept me alive,” Olitsky said. “I’m healthier now than I’ve ever been.”


More than 400 million people worldwide are obese and surgery is the only proven method to shed significant pounds in a short time. In the United States, it costs $17,000 to $35,000 and insurance coverage varies.


Weight-loss surgery is considered relatively safe with the risk of death from the surgery at less than 1 percent. Common complications include nutritional deficiency, gallstones and hernia.


U.S. guidelines recommend that surgery be considered only after traditional ways to slim down have failed. Candidates must be at least 100 pounds overweight and have a BMI over 40, or a BMI over 35 plus an obesity-related medical condition such as diabetes or high blood pressure.


This fall, a panel of experts from the National Institutes of Health will revisit the obesity surgery guidelines. It’s not yet known whether a BMI change would be considered, said spokeswoman Susan Dambrauskas.


Susan Pisano, a spokeswoman for America’s Health Insurance Plans, which represents 1,300 insurers, said the group will rely on any new recommendations from the federal government.


The Sweden study was paid for by the government-funded Swedish Medical Research Council, drug makers Hoffmann-La Roche Inc. and AstraZeneca PLC and Cederroth, which makes health care products. The U.S. study was supported by an NIH branch; one of the researchers has received a lecture fee from a company that makes equipment for obesity surgery .

It's the first time America is seeing one third of American Idol judge Randy Jackson! He's the latest famous name to go through the controversial weight loss procedure, gastric bypass surgery. Randy says he's been overweight his entire life, but it was his recent diagnosis of diabetes that forced him to take extreme measures. "Diabetes runs in my family, " he says. "I was afraid that if I didn't really get healthy and do something drastic that I may not be around that long. It's funny, diet and exercise really works, but when you're heavy, you don't want to workout. Now that I've lost this weight, I want to work out. If I don't do it, I'm mad, because I have all this energy!"


While Randy's career was climbing the charts, his weight was spiraling out of control. Before the surgery, he weighed 329 pounds. He's now lost 100 pounds and plans to lose another 20 pounds. One of his main motivations for weight-loss surgery was to be healthier for his wife and family. Says wife Erica, "I was very worried because we have children. He didn't take proper care of himself, and I wondered if we were going to have him around."


Now that Randy is more active and has to monitor what he eats, he feels healthier and like he's come out from behind a cloud. The cloud has lifted!


Gastric bypass surgery doesn't change eating habits, so many patients go through difficulties post-surgery as they learn how to eat with a new digestive system. Before surgery, Randy described himself as a "kid from the South" that naturally loves lots of sweets—cookies, cakes and pies. Now, he literally can't eat these foods because it can easily make him ill.


"I think, for me, as risky as this surgery is, it's a lifestyle-change decision. The word diet to me doesn't work, I really had to change my life. None of the behavioral things go away, but I get a jumpstart with this on my life. You go, 'If I'm going to go through a life-threatening surgery, so that I can try and live longer and help myself, I'm certainly not going to start back doing the things I know are wrong for me.'"