Thursday 24 January 2008

ADJUSTABLE GASTRIC BANDING SURGERY

If any epidemiological study can be qualified as a marketing tool for a product or a service, in our opinion, the following study is so transparent, even a lay person can recognize it.

In a few words, what the researchers -- who obtained the equipment to test the surgical procedure from the manufacturers, with a no string attached label, or so they claim -- are telling us, is that the Adjustable Gastric Banding procedure, is an effective therapy for diabetes.

What the procedure does, is that it places a ring on the obese person’s stomach and suppresses appetite. The researchers go on explaining that since obesity is an important risk factor for diabetes, the patients will lose weight and consequently their glucose levels will decrease.

Wow, a miracle! The best scientific discovery since antibiotics! But with critical thinking, anyone can figure out that what the researchers could have just as well told us is, that anyone who wants to lose weight and cannot do it through dieting, there is always the option of having the Adjustable Gastric Banding surgery which their study finds effective. Of course, a product or service will sell much better if we appeal to some feared disease such as diabetes, therefore we conveniently use that fear factor to draw attention to our service. The bottom line is that the surgery has absolutely nothing to do with curing diabetes, it is the weight loss that does and there are many ways to lose weight including the good old method of will power and perseverance; this surgical procedure is just one of them.

Read the study here

Read the long news article Weight Loss Surgery Treats Diabetes

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