In Belgium, 18% of the population is considered obese. Philippe, he has been since he was 14 years old. He agreed to testify at the microphone of RTL info. “I have tried just regarding every diet”he says. “When you stop eating, obviously you lose weight but as soon as you relax you gain the weight back. I’ve been yo-yoing like this almost all my life.” Philippe had a gastric band put in when he was 30… Without much success. He therefore made the decision to undergo a stomach reduction operation, thanks to the support of a psychologist. “It helps a lot”, he admits. In three months, this bon vivant went from 150 to 123 kilos.
But these operations are not suitable for everyone. Patients must meet several criteria: “We need a very early onset of excess weight, people who have made a lot of attempts and who especially have comorbidities such as diabetes, sleep apnea, high blood pressure”says Jean-Paul Thissen, endocrinologist and nutritionist at Saint-Luc University Clinics.
How’s it going?
“The stomach is only a tenth and the rest goes directly into the intestine which, at some point, will saturate”explains Benoït Navez, Professor of Surgery and Abdominal Transplantation. “There is therefore a restrictive effect in the food volumes.” A plate of pasta, for example, can be reduced to a third.
But beware, success is not 100% guaranteed. A third of patients regain weight: Obesity is a multifactorial disease that can be environmental, social or can be genetic. “The more serious the obesity, the more the recourse to surgery will be inevitable, but there are new avenues for medical treatment, perhaps in the future fewer patients will be operated on”, notes Benoit Navez.
15,000 operations of this type are carried out each year in Belgium: this is twice as many as 10 years ago. Worldwide, obesity has doubled in 40 years.
