In the last decade, teen obesity became the most common disease in pediatrics. These kids' life is not a daydream. Besides lacking self-confidence, low self-esteem and depression, they have to bear physical symptoms as well, like respiratory problems, fatigue, joint pain and it is likely that eventually obesity related conditions like heart problems, diabetes, hypertension, sleep apnea, asthma etc. would appear.
Once these diseases occur it will be a lot harder to lose weight with diets, diet pills or any traditional weight loss methods. This is why it is very important that parents educate their children to nourish themselves in a healthy way. No coke, no hamburgers, no smoking, but instead fresh fruits and vegetables. Moreover, children should understand that it is for their own good and their parents are not being "not cool".
If overweighed children do not ask for help in time, if their parents do not ask help for them in time, as far as my experience goes traditional weight loss methods will fail one by one.
More and more teenagers ask for surgical weight loss options, especially the Lap Band nowadays. The Lap Band system is not approved to be performed on teenagers by the FDA yet, although for sometime now evaluating studies have been conducted. Beginning with 2006 some teenagers, with rapidly deteriorating health, received the Lap-Band, only because this seemed to be their only option to be saved.
17 years old Luis Garcia for example, on the advice of his pediatrician underwent the Lap-Band Procedure at Marina Del Rey Hospital, Los Angeles. In his case getting the Lap Band was truly his best option because he suffered from high blood pressure and weighed 345 pounds.
As a surgical weight loss option the Lap-Band is less invasive than gastric bypass or sleeve gastrectomy, it is adjustable and completely reversible. The device is placed with the help of a laparoscope on the top of the stomach and it is filled with saline. This device helps controlling the amount of the food the p[patient can eat. The weight loss with the Lap Band is slow and steady.
Dr. Jeremy Korman is a board certified general surgeon specializing in minimally invasive, bariatric surgery.
