Although you will have to do the free registration to read it, I found this quite interesting and in the Business section of the very well known New York Times: "One Alternative: A Ring That Squeezes the Stomach"

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/27/business/27band.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/27/business/27bariatric.html?8hpib

Can you cut & paste the article here so we don't have to register?

Can you cut & paste the article here so we don't have to register?

I would have done so but it is considered a form of theft of intellectual property (I work on a messageboard which taught me about this) .. they, The NYT, want you to go through the registration process which is simple enough ... it is okay to do so and you will be able to access their highly interesting and well-researched articles daily ... I even have a paper subscription to the Times and love it!

I registered and read and was tempted to copy and paste...but I imagined a room of lawyers at the NYT bringing up LBT on the projector screen, looking at my copy/paste post and preparing papers to get info from Alex B the board owner so they could track me down and sue the pants off me for theft of intellectual property. As if, but the thought of it was a bit daunting.

So here's MY intellectual property. Mr Zimmerman pays 30k cash for his band because his insurance won't cover it and he's afraid he'll die from sleep apnea. He weighs 290, forgot his height. So he has the surgery on Fri and returns to work on Monday and 6 weeks later he's back for his first fill after losing 25 pounds.

Inamed makes the band and makes alot of money since the bariatric market is a multi-billion dollar market. Band placement has less risk and is a less invasive than other bariatric surgeries. Most people lose about 1/2 their desired weight (?).

Oh I'm sure I forgot lots of stuff but that's it in a nutshell. If you want a well-written version, you'll have to sign on and register. It's much more infromative and entertaining and accurate and thorough, I'm sure.

okay, i am daring, i am brave, i am saying F*#k it... here it is. If they want to sue me for it, be my guest. Can't squeeze Water out of a rock I say...

Ben Zuckerman, a 57-year-old bottling executive from King of Prussia, Pa., was not surprised last year to find himself carrying more than 290 pounds on his 6-foot-1 frame. Mr. Zuckerman said he could look back on decades of binge eating and failed diets.

Diane Bondareff for The New York Times

The inflatable Lap-Band.

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Sorry, Princess. I have to take out the full text of these articles. We can't be seen to be sanctioning copyright infringement. You wouldn't be the one held responsible.

Zarathustra, thanks so much for letting us know about these! Fascinating!! Especially the malpractice piece. That may be the path to MUCH wider acceptance of the band as a surgical treatment for obesity. Just imagine how much lower the incidence of medical malpractice suits must be for banded patients than RNY patients. Sure we have complications sometimes, but they're not the life-ending or life-altering kinds of things you see in bypass patients.

Ben Zuckerman, a 57-year-old bottling executive from King of Prussia, Pa., was not surprised last year to find himself carrying more than 290 pounds on his 6-foot-1 frame. Mr. Zuckerman said he could look back on decades of binge eating and failed diets.

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Interesting maybe I should do it.lol

So basically this guy went through what all of us are going through, only he was published in the paper? Got it. Good info, thanks.

Sounds like their info is outdated. We don't expect to lose 1/2 our excess weight, we can lose it all. It may just take us longer than bypass patients! According to Dr. Ortiz, data now supports that we lose just as much after 2 years.

My initial point was simply that a widely read publication, in this case The New York Times, was running these two articles long after many seemed to "get it" ... but I was interested in their apparent "interest" in the topic .. that was all ...

Zarathustra, I, too, am interested in reading what is being published out there about the Lap Band, so I thank you for the link.

I guess we just all gotta get our 2 cents in, for whatever it's worth. Oh, it's worth 2 cents, right? Mine is, anyway!

I usually toss the NYT business section without even reading the front page, so I totally missed this. Interesting articles; I notice that all the malpractice suits are for bypass surgery. Thanks for the links, Z.

Zarathustra, I wasn't being critical, I sould have added Thank you to my post. It was very nice of you to share it with us, since I too don't always read the business section. My only point is that the data that most newspaper, magazine articles, etc. is outdated.

It the data that most newspaper, magazine articles, etc. is outdated.

I agree with you about this point completely. That said, I rely almost exclusively upon the Internet for current findings in this field.

I continue to read the NYTimes for many things but this grabbed me ... politics just doesn't do much other than kill my appetite ... hey, wait just a minute, not a bad idea as a weight loss concept whatsoever!