More Unecessary Shortcuts

So yet another item in the health and weigh loss news yesterday.  Now, they want to make the LAP band gastric ring available to people who are only level one obese, and not just in the extreme cases.  And of course, the request to the FDA didn't come from the medical establishment, it came from Allergan, the maker of the band.  Now it is no secret that the population needs to lose weight, exercise, eat nutritionally well, and reduce their stress levels to be healthy.  But once again, the magic pill that doesn't exist is being touted.  Complications abound from this proceedure and as with Bariatric Surgery, we have a good idea that there just might be problems down the road as well. We do know that you can have ulceration, band slippage, infection, productive burping, gastitis, malpositioning of the band and actual erosion into the stomach wall.  Now don't you think the FDA and all the new health care laws should be advocating behavioral change along with exercise and nutrition education instead?  I know one thing.  People in our program have been able to turn it around time and time again without any invasive proceedures.