Questions I'd like answered about Gastric bypass surgery

1. Why is it any healthier for a person with a gastric bypass to eat 500 calories a day than it is for a person with anorexia to eat 500 calories a day, especially when the gastric bypass patient may only ABSORB 200-300 calories a day?

2. Why are so many surgeons so evasive about the lifespan of a person who has a gastric bypass?

 A recent analysis theorized that a person with a gastric bypass would only gain 3 years of additional life from it i.e. they might live three years longer if they have a gastric bypass then if they had remained obese.

 http://www.lef.org/news/disease/2002/10/31/eng-newsrx/engnewsrx_093942_6228351458362378163.ew.html

3. Why does everyone call the Gastric Bypass a 'stomach stapling' when, in fact, it includes an intestinal bypass?

4. If the only place in the body where Calcium is absorbed is the 'duodenum' part of the intestine... and people with Gastric Bypasses don't have one anymore, how is someone with a gastric bypass going to absorb enough calcium to meet RDA needs (1200 mg daily)?

5. Why does everyone assume that "FAT" is the problem when thin people get sick also?

6. If the gastric bypass is such a good solution, why do they have to hard sell it on TV like Jenny Craig, Nutrasystems and other diet solutions which are less than effective?

7. If gastric bypass patients are told that this is the "only way to lose weight permanently" why do surgical sites tell patients if they don't diet and exercise, they won't lose the weight or keep it off? 

8. Also if the gastric bypass is the "only permanent way to lose weight" why are there thousands of people who have gained back or need revisions?  (on the yahoo re-gain and revision support communities for example)

9. All diet programs have poster kids.  If we all know that the poster kids for 'other diet programs' like Nutrasystems etc are the exception, not the rule, why do some folks think that the poster kids for the gastric bypass are the rule, not the exception?

10. How can people think if they can have major surgery to rearrange their entire digestive tract, that their body won't complain a lot?

11. The Hebrew University study (1999) showed that 7 percent of gastric bypass patients kept all their excess weight off, 25 percent of patients regained to clinical obesity and 70 percent of gastric bypass patients kept "some" of their weight off (about 40-60 percent, surgeons tell us).  I am wondering, should we count in that 70 percent, the 20 percent (Mayo Clinic study 2000) who get serious complications within 5 years of surgery?  Or the 40 percent (Livingston UCLA studies of 800 patients over 8 years) who get serious complications within 8 years of surgery? 

Interestingly enough, if we DO subtract the 40 percent who have complications, then it's 30 percent who keep "some weight" off. This is identical to the percentage who, according to the Weight Loss Registry study (govt study still going on) who can keep "some weight off" with dieting and/or exercise i.e. 30 percent of the population.

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