How Can We Combat Weight Loss Surgery Misinformation?

LapBandTalk.com is a wealth of weight loss and healthy lifestyle tips, a source of information specific to your situation, and a place where you can locate and connect to the best bariatric surgeons in your are. Despite this abundance of resources, most of our members come here for another reason: the positivity. Our members are supportive, encouraging and empathetic. But among the general population, it’s a different story due to misinformation and hasty judgments.

Why Weight Loss Surgery Misinformation is Rampant

In the age of digital media, information can be immediately available to millions of people as soon as someone posts it online using a laptop, smartphone or other mobile device. Unfortunately, nothing is automatically censored, so misinformation is just as easy to spread as facts. In the blink of an eye, people can post random thoughts via Twitter, Facebook or other social media platforms without even realizing that their followers may take their intended musings as hard data.

How People Choose What to Believe

Many people are unable to distinguish between weight loss surgery fact and fiction because they simply do not know enough to make a sound judgment. Some people are cynical by nature, and have a tendency to instinctively believe the worst when they are presented with opposing facts. These people, for example, may automatically believe that weight loss surgery is harmful and ineffective instead of low-risk and healthy for the right patients.

Common Myths

If you want to combat widespread weight loss surgery information, you should know some of the common myths and how to respond with the truth. These are some common false beliefs surrounding bariatric surgery and their realities.

• Myth: It’s a quick and easy fix.
  
• Reality: It’s not quick, and it’s not easy. Surgery does not make you lose a single pound. You lose the excess weight over the course of years through diet and exercise modifications.
  
• Myth: It’s dangerous and invasive.
  
• Reality: Complications are rare for lap-band procedures, and they are usually minor, such as needing an adjustment in band location. Roux-n-Y can cause nutrient deficiencies, but you work with a dietitian and have frequent check-ups to lower your risk. The procedures take less than two hours, and full recovery takes a few days to a couple of weeks.
  
• Myth: You don’t have to change your diet, or, you can only eat a limited variety of foods.
  
• Reality: The truth lies somewhere in between. You are encourage to eat a nutritious diet and avoid high-fat, high-sugar foods as well as liquid calories.
  

What Can You Do?

With instantaneous transmission of information, rumors spread like wildfires in the social stratosphere. Worse, rumors can easily because widely accepted as facts. How can you help to combat this harmful gossip?

These are a few possibilities.

• Fight fiction with fact: Social networking platforms, such as blogs, Facebook, Twitter are just as good for spreading truth as they are at spreading lies. Every time you come across an inaccurate or demeaning statement about weight loss surgery, stand up for you and your friends who have had weight loss surgery.
  
• Be a good example: Most people tend to base their judgments on what or whom they know. If they know one person (you) with weight loss surgery, they’ll base their judgments on you. Hopefully, they will realize the benefits of bariatric surgery when they see you eating well every day, exercising regularly, being more productive at work and being a happier, healthier person overall.
  
• Emphasize that not all bariatric surgery options are the same. Roux-n-Y is irreversible and more drastic than Lap Band procedures, which take less than an hour.
  

Can Celebrities Help?

Celebrities can be spokespeople for the cause. If you know of any celebrities who are bariatric surgery pateints, consider contacting them and asking them to be more verbal about the cause. Nobody can get the message across like a celebrity. These are a few examples of famous people with bariatric surgery.

• Carnie Wilson, television host and singer: Roux-n-Y, 1999; laparoscopic band over bypass, 2012
  
• Star Jones Reynolds, television host: gastric bypass, 2003
  
• Brian Dennehy, actor: Lap-Band, 2008
  

As a bariatric surgery patient or someone who is considering the procedure, what are your thoughts? How can we change the negative perceptions surrounding aftercare? Does the terminology need to be changed? Can some sort of publicity campaign online or in the offline media be helpful? As an individual, can you be a role model to demonstrate that you have worked hard for every pound that you have lost, and that you are continuing each day to make healthy choices in your diet and exercise? Let us know what you think!