Bariatric Surgery and Alcoholism

[WL WARRIOR 692]

I am on a small device, so I need to write my post as a reply. Please wait 5 minutes.

[WL WARRIOR 692]

Title of YouTube video: Bariatric Surgery and Alcoholism

This video shows the story of Lori, a 43 year old woman that had gastric bypass in 2003. She was never a heavy drinker and stayed away from alcohol for the first year after surgery. She noticed something different about her body's reaction to the alcohol after surgery. Her tolerance level had changed dramatically and it led her drinking to spin out of control. I think all pre and post op patients should watch this short interveiw to better understand why alcohol is dangerous after surgery. Please give your viewpoint after watching because the message is slightly against weight loss surgery. You may have to cut and paste the URL, otherwise type the title in the search bar at YouTube.com

[WL WARRIOR 692]

Sorry, I cannot edit and I forgot something important. This interview was done by Dr. DeMatteo and Lori is his daughter. He mentions in the comments that it was hard to not cry during the interview. He is such a remarkable man and the information he includes with the video is very insightful and a must read. I think this is a video that could save lives.

[blondebomb 580]

I cant say much about this. alls I am going to say is all my preop screening was EXTREMELY extensive. very thorough. to family history all my issues for my weight . psych evaluation , dietician..they ran me thru the ringer. and from the BEGINNING it was DO NOT DRINK ALCOHOL . It goes striaght thru the blood stream an it affects a person differantly an VERY quickly! they put the fear of alcohol in us!! the sugar from alcohol in the blood causes major insulin swings an the quicker it drops the more you want.I am not sure what to think about this. its possible that she was a self pay maybe an didnt get screened like those who depend on Ins an didnt have the proper education? I really dont no. but I can also see if a person has already a tendecy to WANT to drink (like in her genes bc of family prominates of drinking) if you already want it that small taste can take over an I mean the brain will crave more an more. I may be wrong but thats pretty much what was really instilled in us going thru our preop classes. I will be watching for others comments..

[WL WARRIOR 692]

I have past addiction problems, so I was sent to a bariatric psychiatrist after my psych evaluation. That was when the topic of "cross addiction" was brought up. It wasn't really explained why alcohol was so bad after surgery. I had to research that on my own.

[VSGAnn2014 12,992]

Anecdotal experiences of individuals are often attention-grabbing.

However, the following facts about alcohol abuse and dependence among the general population and among WLS populations offer context for the experience of the WLS patient shown in the above video.

Alcohol is the most commonly used addictive substance in the U.S. 17.6 million people, or one in every 12 adults, suffer from alcohol abuse or dependence along with several million more who engage in risky drinking patterns that could lead to alcohol problems. More than half of all adults have a family history of alcoholism or problem drinking, and more than seven million children live in a household where at least one parent is dependent or has abused alcohol.

https://ncadd.org/for-the-media/alcohol-a-drug-information

Here are the findings from one study published in 2012 about transfer alcohol addiction after WLS (in this case RnY):

In addition to the potential for weight regain, WLS patients, RYGB patients in particular, are at risk for emergence of alcohol use disorders by 2 years post-WLS, with 16.5% of patients engaging in hazardous alcohol use and nearly 10% having an alcohol use disorder [37]

http://turner-white.com/pdf/jcom_oct13_bariatric.pdf

The same study referenced these earlier study's findings:

In a large-scale longitudinal study, rates of alcohol use disorders did not differ from 1 year before to 1 year after surgery, but by 2 years post-WLS the rate of problematic alcohol use increased significantly. Specifically, drinking ≥ 4 times per week and meeting alcohol dependence criteria both increased from about 3% to 5% of patients from baseline to year 2, and any form of alcohol use disorder increased from 7.6% to 9.6% during this same time frame. Notably, the escalation of problematic alcohol use was significant only among RYGB patients, not those who underwent adjustable gastric banding.

Edited December 19, 2014 by VSGAnn2014

[bellabloom 2,469]

My surgeon said drinking is fine. Go figure ?