Medicare will pay for obesity treatment, but only if proven 'effective'

Medicare will pay for obesity treatment, but only if proven 'effective'

Medicare will pay for obesity treatment, but only if proven 'effective'

This bids fair to open some really interesting and pertinent research and discussions on weight gain and loss.

The NY TImes article asks an interesting question. What does effective really mean in this context.

The answer I like best that is given is:

Others, like Dr. Jules Hirsch, an obesity researcher at Rockefeller University in New York, say there is another definition of success - getting rid of the weight problem for good.
"At the end of the treatment, are they now like all kinds of other people who never had the problem of obesity?" Dr. Hirsch said. "By that definition, there has been nothing that works."

Click to expand...

To me, that spells out the real problem with dieting.

I wonder what the rest of you think of this?

Doris

These weight loss surgeries are scary; I feel so sorry for people who have medical problems that cause obesity that won't go away with healthy eating and exercise.

The bariatric surgeries are indeed scary. My sister in law had her stomach stapled (granted this was back when the surgery was new, but...) Also I am not sure what the exact technical term for the operation she had was done, but she tells me that that is not the method now used. She has had the following problems.

1. She spent the first year throwing up everything she ate, no matter how little.
2. Scar tissue has formed around where the staple is, restricting the size of the hole that food has to pass through. Efforts to open it wider have not worked. As a result, she still throws up probably every other day when the hole becomes plugged. She has to eat many things pureed for this reason. Some things she simply cannot eat: Pasta, chicken, turkey, etc. etc. If the food is too gluey (pasta) or has too long fibers (chicken), the hole blocks up. Unfortunately, chocolate, most ice cream, cake and chips give her digestion no trouble at all.
3. Despite all this, she has lost only 40 to 80 lbs from her top weight, yo yo dieting still. If you believe the charts, and make allowances for short neck and extremely short legs, she still should lose another 30 lbs, but she can't do it.
4. She nearly died due to excessive bleeding after the surgery.

However, in the terms of one of the doctors in the article, this would be a success, since in the 15 or 20 years since she had the surgery, she has never gone back any closer to her original high weight.

It sure the heck is not 'just like normal people' after the treatment.

I would compare people with serious obesity problems after 'treatments' to recovering alcoholics -- they can lead 'normal' lives, but they can never relax and do whatever they want.

This is such an important topic, and I feel that it is one that society ignoring. (Unless someone is noticing an overweight person to persecute them either mentally or verbally.) I think that one thing that we need to look at is why a person is overweight. I have heard people say that it can be hormones, and corrected with meds. I also see how much food is served a restaurants as compared to how much food we can actually fit into our stomachs.

The eating habits of Americans today is scary. Here's a reality check: I love water, and I try to drink lots of it. (I also love Coke and coffee.) We have 4 breakrooms where I work. There is ONE button for water on ONE machine. There are 3 other machines dispense only soda (AND THIS IS IN EACH BREAKROOM!!!) When the water runs out, and it does, you get to buy pop or slurp for an hour at the water fountain. The junk that they have in the vending machines is not healthy food. The way and amount that we eat is a problem in our society.

IAnd Doris, how ironic is it that your sister in law can digest the not so healthy food easier than the healthier food. Obesity and being overweight is a very real problem, and unless you have ever battled your weight, or had to fight the urge of going face first into the chocolate cake, it is hard to understand. Maybe some people just have super amazing will power too...I wish that I had the answer. Very interesting topic. When I complain to my finacee about the expanding nature of my lovliness, he simply states that I need to put out more energy than I take in. Simple in theory...doing it can be more challenging.