With summer just around the corner, weight loss is an issue that many people struggle with. Losing weight isn't easy, and for those who have tried everything and failed, few options are available. The latest weight loss treatment offers a safe alternative for those who have few options left.
The latest weight loss alternative revealed
Web MD reported that the latest weight loss procedure offers a nonsurgical alternative. The procedure, called endoscopic sleeve gastroplasty, or ESG, allows doctors to use an endoscope to cinch the stomach of the patient so that it becomes smaller.
An endoscope is a device that had a light and a camera attached to it. The endoscopic sleeve gastroplasty involves stitching the stomach, which makes it slimmer and smaller. Because of the change in the size of the stomach, it takes longer for food to go through the digestive system, and so patients feel fuller longer, and they eat less.
Presented at the Digestive Disease Week conference, researchers decided to find out how the procedure compares to two other procedures for losing weight, both which involve surgery. While the sleeve procedure doesn't require doctors to perform surgery, procedures like laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy, which reduces the size of the stomach by 75 percent, and laparoscopic banding, which puts a band around the stomach to restrict eating can help patients, for many it's not an option because of cost or health reasons.
Bariatric surgery has only been used to help about one percent of patients with a body mass index of over 30 because it's so expensive. It has also had its problems too as a doctor was recently sued for malpractice. Sean Milliken, of 'My 600-lb Life' is still bedridden after having Bariatric surgery to reduce his weight.
How the nonsurgical weight loss procedure is performed
Yahoo News reported that the endoscopic sleeve gastroplasty procedure requires inserting a tube down the esophagus of the patient and then suturing pleats into the stomach. This creates an accordion effect for the stomach. It also allows patients to feel fuller faster, and they eat less leading to weight loss.
Because the procedure doesn't require physicians to do any cutting, it is considered to be a nonsurgical procedure. For those who are obese, have a BMI of at least 30, and have medical conditions that prevent them from having surgery, it offers a good alternative for weight loss.
The study involved following 91 patients who had the procedure and their results were compared to 120 patients who had laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy and 67 patients who had the laparoscopic banding. After one year, the patients who had the nonsurgical procedure lost 18 percent of their body weight while those who had the second procedure lost 30 percent of their body weight. The last group lost 14 percent of their body weight.
