Get Rid of your Sedentary Working Lifestyle

There are many health improvement initiatives you can do to mitigate the growing risks you face as a result of stymied physical activity in 21st century corporate America. But one major area that can make a huge health difference is to overhaul your sedentary lifestyle. Every health pundit knows that spending more time sitting means less physical activity that promotes weight gain and all the co-morbidities that increase your risks to heart disease and obesity. It may be easier said than done, but getting rid of your sedentary lifestyle can be one major strategic health improving initiative that can drastically reverse your body’s descent into all sorts of disease vulnerability. Make a stand towards a healthier working lifestyle. Literally, that is. Consider the following:

(1) Dr. John Buckley of the Chester University in England and a former university colleague, Professor Stuart Biddle, made a new year's resolution in 2013 to spend at least 3 hours each day standing instead of sitting on their desks. They both modified a lectern into a working desk on which they can do their work standing up. The former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was known to work on his office papers standing up. To date, he remains in good health at age 81.

(2) A US survey conducted in 2003 - 2004 quantified the sedentary lifestyle when it showed that Americans spend on average half their waking time sitting, or 8 hours out of 16. That was not entirely surprising when you consider that for office employees in an 8-hour workshift, about the only time they get to stand up is when taking a 15-minute break to the pantry, or discharging a biological necessity. Fast food deliveries make it easy to get their lunch served while doing their desk jobs. This, not to mention the fact that they sit an hour or more driving to/from the office through rush hour traffic, eat with the family on the dining table, and watch TV on their favorite couch or in bed. Weekends could be just as bad if they spend more time in bed, watch the home movies they missed during the week, or play video games.

(3) Sitting is best done to relax the body for a few minutes in between physical activities. But with a sedentary lifestyle, sitting becomes the main activity to get work done on your PC. Sitting behind the desk burns around 80 calories per hour. On the other hand, standing burns around 115 calories per hour. A 35 calorie/hour burn difference may not be much but not when you spend an average of 8 hours each day seated. By the time you call it a day, you will have missed the opportunity to lose or not gain about 280 calories. A little more math will show that in a year, that translates to about 100,000 calories you failed to burn or 28 lbs that was either added to your weight or didn't lose.

Conclusion

Do yourself a favor and say goodbye to your sedentary lifestyle. It's a strategic health initiative that will require you to convert an old lectern into your working desk, modify a bar counter into one, or simply ask a good carpenter to build a 12-15-inch high pedestal to mount your desk. How much would that cost you? Maybe a few hundred dollars of customized carpentry work as an investment. But how much are you willing to spend to lose 28 lbs in a year? This is sound weight management and a healthier body you can get without even altering your food intake, daily routines, or leisure activities. Think about it and resolve to do the same thing as what Dr. Buckley and Prof Biddle did.

Top 5 Red Flags that Scream: SEO Scam Ahead

With just about every business looking to monetize  to website traffic, the need to optimize an online commercial presence thru search engine marketing has brought the SEO business to be quite competitive in winning clients.  But just like any business, there are those out to make a quick income from gullible or misinformed customers, and SEO scammers abound.

These unethical SEO practitioners may succeed the first time, but search engines like Google and Yahoo are just as quick to counter manipulative and deceptive SEO methods with sophisticated algorithms that identify and penalize unethically search optimized websites by pushing them out from the first few search pages,  striking them off their indexes, and outright banning their websites. 

The last thing a website business owner wants is to incur the ire for Google.  This can easily be avoided by simply knowing what can realistically and ethically be accomplished  with search engine optimization.  Seasoned SEO practitioners  know this but many others will promise you the moon with optimization strategies that either don’t work or could get you into trouble with search engines.  Consider the following  top 5 obvious red flags that say you are dealing with SEO scam:

(1)  Promising to bring your website to #1 position on Google.

This is a common promise and already betrays a scam. No ethical SEO professional can guarantee #1 search result position on Google or other search engines.  How far up the search engine results pages (SERP) you land after a thorough SEO makeover on your site also hinges on competition.  The higher the completion, the lesser likelihood there is that you can make it to 1^st page, let alone 1^st place.  Moreover, even getting to 1^st place is no guarantee you will remain there for long. Remember that the competition is also optimizing its website.  And should you get there using unethical SEO tactics, you run the risk of your website getting demoted or banned outright from search engines.

(2) Promising noticeable SERP results in just a short period of time.

Achieving first page visibility or significant movement up your SERP position in Google takes weeks or even months. Any promise of instant results immediately raises a red flag. Such unrealistic claims are not only unlikely, they also expose you to deceptive or manipulative SEO schemes that can get you into trouble with Google and other search engines.

(3) Promising to generate thousands of visitors to your site.

This is what commercial website owners want but the promise only be achieved if your website lands in the first 1-2 pages of a search result. A higher SERP ranking generally translates to more website visits. But getting there depends on other factors such as the number of times your relevant keywords or keyword phrases are used to make searches. Driving significant traffic to your site requires ranking high for searched keywords. If the SEO practitioner does not use the right keywords, all the other SEO tactics could be rendered useless.

(4) Promising the “highest or premium quality” SEO service at a ridiculously low price.

Just like in any purchase, you generally get what you pay for. This truism has significantly more relevance when it comes to services that require time-consuming and labor-intensive code-level reprogramming (i.e., on-page optimization at the HTML level), content relevance improvement, off-page optimization that includes link-building, and understanding your market and competition for the right keywords. Any offer to do so cheaply raises another red flag. Search engine optimization that does the job is not cheap. But while you can find affordable SEO rates, don’t expect to get the “best”, “highest” or “premium” SEO service.

(5). Refusing or avoiding customer questions.

Ethical SEO professionals offer a service to enhance your online presence and deliver excellent value for your money – one that often assumes a long-term business partnership that takes time to see fruition. Unfortunately, many are out just to get your money as fast as possible. A relatively simple way to check is to ask probing questions through their chat line, phone, or email.  (A site that has none of these contact points raises  a red flag. An emailed question that takes days to answer is another.)   Ask questions and expect to be asked about your business as well. If you are unhappy with the answers, don’t get any answer at all, or if it shows little or no interest with your business needs and expectations with irrelevant questions, you are facing an incompetent SEO practitioner or a scammer.  Look elsewhere.

Vatican spearheads internet name revolution

Organizations now have a wider choice when they register a domain for their respective websites. In a recent move by the Internet regulating body ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), Internet addressing currently dominated by .com, .org and .net has been opened up to include a wider choice of top level domain names. 

What better way to bring this new revolution in internet addressing under revised ICANN rules than for a highly visible and widely followed religious organization to make the pioneering move to adopt to the change. The Pope and the Vatican spearheads this revolution as it recently bagged the high level domain name “.Catholic.” 

Apart from being seen as a popular and non-traditional head of more than 1.4 billion Catholics around the world, the newly elected Pope Francis has made headlines by adopting the naming revolution for the Vatican in bringing its religious presence in cyberspace. This makes the Vatican the first organization to register the domain name under the new rules and is expected to go live soon in English, Arabic, Chinese, and Russian. 

With the recent changes in ICANN registration policies, the Vatican lost no time to register the domain name rather than allow any secular organization or individual to use it for less than pious purposes. It was the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Social Communications that successfully completed the domain name application processing in 2012. ICANN has recently confirmed authorizing the Vatican to have complete and exclusive control over the new domain address extension .Catholic. 

Contrary to recent media reports that the .Catholic name would go live in October, Msgr. Tighe, secretary of the council, said that websites using the .Catholic extension will still take some time to activate as there are some “bureaucratic kinks to iron out”, technical tests to run, contracts to sign, and clear guidelines to disseminate for potential users of the domain name.

In addition, Msgr. Tighe clarified that Catholic individuals and bloggers will not be allowed to use ".Catholic."  The domain name extension will be confined to organizations with formal canonical recognition such as parishes, dioceses, religious orders, and Catholic institutions like schools, universities, and hospitals.

More Liberal and Personalized Internet Addressing

The Internet is now open to thousands of top level domains that further personalize your website when you register a domain. Current top level domain extensions like .com, .net, and .co.uk have become quite saturated. ICANN senior advisor Sally Costerton said that, “There are 111 million dot com names.” This creates difficulty in finding sites you want to visit. 

The new addressing scheme is expected to create a higher level of personalization that makes finding the site you want to visit easier. You can have .America, .London, .eco, .college, .PS3 .Apple and .YourName, just to mention a few. Apart from .Catholic, religious organizations can now register a domain name with extensions like .Faith, .Bible, .Koran, .Hindu, and .Christmas, among others.

By the end of 2013, ICANN expects more than 1,400 new domain names to roll out as part of its expansion plans to bring around 100,000 new domain names over the next five years. This change is the result of ICANN’s eight years of study and is considered the most significant development since the World Wide Web became popular. To date, some 40 UK organizations have taken initiatives to register a domain for their respective websites under the new rules and they are expected to go live towards the end of 2013. Online users will soon find addresses ending with .boots, .bbc, .itv, .barclays, .jaguar, .hsbc, .williamhill, and .orientexpress, to mention some. Local government authorities are also bagging extensions like .wales, .london, and .scot which are no longer available. 

Not cheap

Applying for brand domain names cost £115,625 and they will be closed and exclusive once purchased. However, broader domain extensions such as .eco, .school, .music, .sport, or .fashion will be open to everyone. In addition, enforcing the new rules come with stringent accepted checks to regulate the application so that groups that may want to register a domain name with extensions like .alqaeda are not allowed along with other socially or politically offensive or derogatory extension names.

What a deer's antler can do for your health

Deer antler velvet is a major curative and health-giving ingredient in traditional Chinese herbal medicine. It comes from male deer, moose and elk which grow new antlers every year. But before the cartilaginous antlers are fully calcified or become bony, they develop soft velvety outer layers which are extracted or harvested in some countries. The stags are not harmed and the extraction often involves local anesthesia and some restraints as supervised by licensed veterinarians. The extract is then dried, processed and formulated in energy-boosting dietary supplements in sublingual spray and capsule forms.

Health benefits of deer antler velvet

In traditional Chinese folk medicine, deer velvet antler velvet provide different curative efficacies based on what part of the antler the substance was taken. The upper section of the antler produces a waxy substance used to stimulate growth in children. The middle section is called the blood piece used to cure arthritis in adults. Lastly, the bottom section or the bone piece is used for treating calcium deficiency and geriatric ailments.

This tradition has not escaped modern alternative natural medicine and the extracted deer antler velvet has found a large market following among athletes and bodybuilders for its claimed promises of boosting strength, performance endurance, and hastening the healing of injured muscles, tendons and cartilages.

What makes deer antler velvet special?

Deer antler velvet contains a growth hormone substance called IGF-1 or insulin-like growth factor 1. These growth hormones are bio-synthesized in the brain and liver to regulate body growth. Not enough growth hormones results in dwarfism. Doctors sometimes prescribe these hormones to children with growth problems. However, too much of it could lead to a type of gigantism or acromegaly.

As a growth hormone, several scientific studies have suggested that IGF-1 naturally stimulates protein synthesis and muscle tissue growth which in turn leads to stronger and beefier muscles. In addition, it reduces fatigue and hastens body repair when recovering from injuries. Despite the preliminary nature of these studies, supplements containing IGF-1 have become a favorite among athletes and bodybuilders to improve performance. While IGF-1 is naturally found in some food groups like dairy products and steaks, it is most abundant in deer velvet antlers.

Deer antler velvet supplements are available over the counter and do not require US FDA approval. However, it should be noted that the FDA, the World Anti-Doping Agency, the National Football League, Major League Baseball and many other sports associations have banned the use of IGF-1 as an unfair performance boosting drug in itself. But as a diet supplement in the form of sprays and capsules, endocrinologist Alan, Rogol, MD of the University of Virginia said little evidence suggests that deer antler velvet has the same potency as pure IGF-1. To date, using the deer antler velvet supplement may be controversial, but it is allowed among professional and amateur sports associations.

The Basics of Personal Branding

When you want to be noticed, whether to get employment, win an election, create confidence in clients and business partners, or simply attract new friends, you need to advertise yourself. In today's digital age where just about every information one needs can be obtained from the internet, that means crafting an online personal brand to your online presence. You would effectively be selling yourself online.

Branding is a common marketing strategy that positions a product or service in the consciousness of target markets or the public so that it gets the right prominence amidst similar products or services competing to be noticed and bought. Its approach makes little difference when applied to creating the online persona that makes you a winner in the minds of the people you want to reach out to. Since Tom Peters, author of several best selling marketing books in the 80s and 90s, first introduced the term in 1997, online personal branding has become the buzzword among people on the move to claim their right to success in their career, business, and socio-political relationships via the internet.

Know yourself and establish what value you stand for

You can't brand yourself if you are clueless about your worth. Take some time to assess yourself. Your personal brand reflects who you are and what value or worth you can bring to society. It encapsulates more than just the explicit information about your statistics, profession, experience, and education you put on the Web, such as an online resume or a profile in a social networking site like Facebook of LinkedIn. Your personal brand must be able to put all these things to bear on what value you can add to your employer, business partner, or constituent. A realistic assessment of what you can do, what you love to do, what your philosophy is and your insights about what's happening around, and how you can make a difference, creates a compelling persona that can win friends, achieve career advancement, and personal success. You don't have to say it, but your actions online will show.

What this means is that you need to be actively involved online. Not only should you have a social networking presence, but be active in updating it. Having a personal blog site or two is instrumental in crafting an online personal brand, as Tom Peters pointed out. Blogs, especially from Wordpress with your name in the URL, not only creates a permanent online presence, but defines your online personal branding identity with what you post in these blogs. Having one or two about your profession or hobby linked to your Facebook page creates a three-dimensional character behind your name. Guest posting, or putting your insights in other people's blogs that interest you can be just as effective in adding the brand character to your online persona.

Create your unique online presence

You can't very well brand yourself without a unique online presence. What you can do is nail down your identity in a domain name. That means buying your own URL or domain name, like www.johndoe.com. For starters, make a Google search of your name and see what you find. If your name is unique enough, it may land on the first page if you have a Facebook, LinkedIn or other social networking accounts. Otherwise, you may find you have several namesakes all over the result pages. This can present an online personal branding problem, like having so many iPhone brands when there's only one that matters. Play around with your name. If you have several namesakes, add your middle initial(s) or spell it out to create a unique domain name for you. Once you have your unique domain name, create your website using conventional tools or use it in Wordpress and Blogspot.

Does your personal brand have to be your name?

Not necessarily. You may have several brands, the same way that Samsung has several cellphone brands like the popular Galaxy brand among them. If you already enjoy brand equity in your name, meaning you are famous or have significant audience following like a newspaper columnist, politician, or celebrity, then by all means, use your name in your URL as your personal brand. If you are also a professional like a doctor, or an engineer, using your own name as a brand is always a good idea. But you don't have to. Corbett Barr of Think Traffic.net suggests having branding identity that is closer to the general topic in your blog. A blog site name can be specific to a project you are doing, such as photography in Africa, or creating dish recipes. And you can have several that focus on any aspect of your life. Even a movie review, if you love movies, can be a blog site. Then just create your personal profile in an "About Us" section.

Get linked from reputable sites.

Having a blog or website creates an online presence but is just the first step in establishing your personal online brand. As they say, no man is an island. Your online personal branding won't amount to much if no one else online bothers to refer to your sites. Just like in a CV or resume, you add credibility with a list of references, having other sites refer or link to your site pages does the same thing. Quite apart from the fact that back-linking is a search engine optimization method to increase traffic to your website, the fact that your site is being linked to by other websites or blogs completes your online personal branding by creating a vote of confidence that adds to the credibility of you personal brand. Just be sure the sites that link or refer to your site are respectable and adds to your worth, not from notorious or pornographic sites.

A skin disorder called psoriasis

A fairly common non-contagious skin disease, psoriasis causes an overproduction of skin cells that rapidly accumulate on the skin surface to form itchy, dry and thick red skin patches that can sometimes be painful and unsightly. The condition can occur anywhere on your skin surface. Etymologically, the name "psoriasis" comes from the Greek words "psora" meaning "itch," and "sis" meaning "action" or "condition."

Types of psoriasis and symptoms

Psoriasis can form skin patches ranging from one to a few spots characterized by dandruff-like scaling, to major eruptions covering large skin areas in severe cases. While psoriasis symptoms may vary among sufferers, they generally include one or a combination of the following:

- Incessant itching that becomes sore or inflamed with scratched;
- Reddened skin patches covered with silvery scales
- Swollen and stiff joints
- Small discolored scaling spots
- Dry and cracked skin that may bleed with the slightest scratch
- Pitted, thickened or ridged nails

There are at least eight major types of psoriasis based on dermatological signs: plaque, inverse, pustular, guttate and erythrodermic, psoriatic arthritis, nail, and scalp psoriasis.

(1) Plaque psoriasis is the most common, characterized by dry, raised, red lesions or plaques topped with silvery scales. Occurring anywhere on your body, including genitals and tissues inside the mouth, the lesions itch, get inflamed or may be painful and in severe cases, the skin adjacent joints may bleed.

(2) Inverse psoriasis is characterized by smooth patches of inflamed reddened skin appearing mainly in the armpits, groin, and skin folds under the breasts and around genitals. It is prevalent among moderate to severely obese people whose skin between skin folds are constantly irritated with friction and sweat.

(3) Pustular psoriasis is relatively uncommon and is characterized by fast developing pus-filled blisters erupting just a few hours after the skin reddens and gets inflamed. The reddened skin may first appear as widespread patches or in limited areas on the hands, feet or fingertips. The blisters dry up eventually in a day or two, but often reappear with some regularity in a matter of days or weeks. Their appearance can also come with severe itching, fatigue, fever, and chills.

(4) Guttate psoriasis mainly affects people below 30 years of ages and is often triggered by bacterial infection like strep throat. The affected skin area is characterized by small, droplet-shaped sores appearing on your arms, legs, trunk, and scalp and are covered with a fine scaly skin, though not as thick as in plaque psoriasis. They can be single outbreaks that eventually goes away without treatment, but may recur repeatedly especially with repeated bouts of infectious respiratory ailments.

(5) Erythrodermic psoriasis is the least common, characterized by red, itchy or burning rashes over the entire body. The condition is often triggered by corticosteroids and other drugs, sunburn or another type of psoriasis that has not been managed.

(6) Psoriatic arthritis is the appearance of inflamed scaly skin and discolored pitted mails associated with swollen painful joints typical of arthritis. If left unmanaged, it could lead to conjunctivitis or other inflammatory eye conditions. The condition may affect any joint with symptoms that range from mild to severe, causing progressive joint damage that could lead to long lasting or permanent deformity.

(7) Nail psoriasis occur on fingernails and toenails, characterized by abnormal nail formation or growth, pitting, and discoloration. In severe cases, psoriatic nails may lead to onycholysis where the nails loosen and fall off from the nail bed.

(8) Scalp psoriasis appears as red, itchy areas with silvery-white scales on the scalp. This condition may initially appear to be dandruff where flakes of dead skin from your scalp fall off on your shoulders after scratching your scalp.

Cause

What triggers psoriasis is not fully understood, but is widely considered among medical circles to be an immune-mediated disease caused by the interaction of the body's immune system with the environment in people with genetic predisposition. The body's immune system, particularly the T lymphocyte or T cell roving the body to detect and fight off bacteria and foreign bodies, mistakes and attacks a normal skin cell like a pathogen and sends out erroneous signals to cause overproduction of new skin cells in an effort to fight infection or heal wounds.

More specifically, the overactive T cells trigger immune responses that include dilation of skin blood vessels and an increase in white blood cells that enter the outer dermal layers. These changes lead to increased production of both healthy skin cells and T cells that create an ongoing cycle where new skin cells move to the outer skin faster than dead skin cells can slough off so that the affect areas develops thick, scaly skin patches. The cycle won't end unless some treatment intervenes to halt or slow the process.

Triggers and risk factors

Psoriasis can be triggered, or if you already have one, worsened with the following factors that you be able to avoid:

- Injury to the skin that involves lacerations as well as severe sunburn and bug bites.
- Stress and oxidative stress which are known to affect the immune system;
- Withdrawal of certain medication such as systemic corticosteroid treatment;
- Prolonged cold or freezing weather;
- Heavy alcohol consumption;
- Smoking which not only increases risk of psoriasis but may worsen its severity;
- Use of certain drugs or medications which include anti-hypertensive drugs like beta blockers, bipolar disease medication such as lithium, as well as iodides and anti-malarial drugs;
- Family history of the diseases; some 40% of those afflicted with psoriasis have at least one other family member similarly afflicted which supports the hypothesis that psoriasis has genetic roots;
- Viral and bacterial infections; people diagnosed with HIV have been observed to be more susceptible than those with healthy immune systems while children with recurring infections such as strep throat have increased risk to psoriasis;
- Obesity increases risk of psoriasis in areas adjacent to skin folds where skin surfaces tend to rub each other when moving.

A scourge to a quality life

Psoriasis is a chronic persistent disease so that you could have weeks or months when its symptoms seem to improve or go into remission, then enter a period when it recurs or worsens. Depending on the type, severity and location of psoriasis, it can be just a simple annoyance for some people, but it can be quite disabling for others, both physically and emotionally. Severe cases can adversely affect the quality of home and work life. Pain and itching can interfere with routine self-care, walking, and sleeping. Plaques on hands can prevent you from performing well at certain jobs, sports or taking care of your kids. People with psoriasis often become self-conscious about their appearance, have poor self-esteem, inadequate sex life, and poor social relations, any of which could lead to emotional distress such as depression and social isolation.

Treating psoriasis

Treating psoriasis generally target two objectives: (1) to interrupt the cycle that leads to overproduction of skin cells, thereby slowing or halting plaque formation and skin inflammation, and (2) to remove existing skin scales and smooth the skin. The treatment can be categorized into three methods: topical treatments, light or phototherapy and systemic medications, but they are not exclusive and depending on the severity, may call for a combined use of two or more therapies.

(1) Topical treatments involve the application of creams and ointments that include topical corticosteroids, Vitamin D analogues such as Calcitrol, Calcipotriene and Anthralin, topical Retinoids such as tazarotine, Calcinerium inhibitors, Salicylic acid, and coal tars. Moisturizers may help soothe inflamed skin but will not treat psoriasis.

(2) Light therapy or phototherapy involves artificial UV light or natural sunlight without overdoing it. Controlled UV phototherapy can treat mild to moderate symptoms of psoriasis. Several variations in the treatment include Goeckerman therapy, Photochemotherapy, Excimer laser, and pulsed dye laser therapies.

(3) Systemic medication involves injected or oral medication that includes the administration of Retinoids, Methotrexate, Cyclosporine, Hydroxyurea, thioguanine, and immunomodulator drugs.

Prognosis

Psoriasis is considered a lifelong disease and there is currently no known single treatment that lasts, but the several medical solutions listed above, taken singly or in combination, have shown their efficacies in providing significant relief from its symptoms. Often the best treatment is coping with psoriasis. This can be a challenge, especially when the skin disorder covers large areas of your body or appears in places readily seen in public. But there are coping mechanisms that make it easier for sufferers to deal with the realities of this ailment. Learning about the disease, finding support groups, altering your lifestyle, undergoing the prescribe treatment regularly, and using make-ups to cover the affected skin can go a long way in coping successfully.

Weight loss through Bariatric Surgery

Introduction

Severely obese persons often cannot be helped with calorie-restricted diet and exercise even when supplemented with non-prescriptive weight loss drugs. Managing obesity can often be done with surgery which is considered the last resort of choice. This drastic solution is called bariatric surgery whose objective is to reduce stomach size and thereby reduce food intake.

The process involves either of two main procedures.[1].

(1) Malabsorptive procedures: reducing stomach size while creating malabsorption by altering how the nourishment is achieved. This has become a rare procedure due to its inherent risks for inducing severe nutritional deficiency.

(2) Restrictive procedures: This involves simply reducing the size of the stomach and the most widely performed bariatric surgery among severely obese patients.

 Who should undergo bariatric surgery?

As a last resort to weight loss, the U.S. National Institutes of Health suggests that obese people with a body mass index (BMI) of 35 suffering co-morbidities like diabetes or heart diseases, and those with BMI of 40 without diagnosed co-morbidities should strongly consider bariatric surgery. Recent medical research suggests that bariatric surgery could be most suitable for obese persons with a BMI of 35 to 40 without co-morbidities or a BMI of 30 to 35 diagnosed with co-morbidities. [1] In addition, the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases has indicated that bariatric surgery is most suitable for women who are at lest 80 lbs overweight and men who are at least 100 lbs overweight.[5]

Obese persons suffering co-morbidities like diabetes mellitus, hyperlipidemia, impaired glucose tolerance, hypertension, and obstructive sleep apnea can be considered candidates for bariatric surgery. One who is seriously considering it should consult with his or her doctor for the surgical options and a full disclosure of its potential post-surgical complications. [2]

How malabsorptive bariatric surgery works

Biliopancreatic diversion (BPD)

This is complex surgery where part of the stomach is resected to create a smaller pouch and where the distal part of the small intestine bypasses the jejunum and duodenum before being reconnected to the resected stomach pouch. BPD is now rarely performed mostly due to its high risk of complications such as gallstones and several nutritional deficiencies that, without supplementation, could lead to osteoporosis and anemia. [1]

How restrictive bariatric surgery works

A smaller stomach pouch gets full faster, and a feeling of satiation sets in so you eat fewer food portions over a shorter period of time and you lose weight progressively. Restrictive bariatric surgery reduces the size of the stomach through laparoscopic tools is the most popular and often involves the following.

(1) Sleeve gastrectomy

The stomach is surgically reduced to around 15% of its former size and using surgical staples, or sutures or both, leaves the stomach looking like a banana-shaped tube and is irreversible. As the stomach size is reduced, the portion where hormones are produced to stimulate hunger (Ghrelin) is likewise removed and has been shows to be effecting moves patients with a BMI higher than 55. A majority of patients undergoing this surgical process can expect to lose about 30% to 50% of their excess body weight in 6 months to a year. [1]

(2) Adjustable gastric banding

A silicone band that can be inflated with 4 to 12cc of saline solution is placed around the stomach. When inflated, it constricts the stomach to create a smaller stomach pouch at the top section, decreases the size of the passage between this pouch and the lower stomach and slows food passage between the two. Once food is digested in the upper stomach pouch, no further digestion takes place in the lower stomach and the digested simply passes to the intestines. [1]

 The resulting smaller stomach pouch holds about ½ to 1 cup of food while the entire stomach could hold 6 cups. As a reversible and adjustable process, you can expect a few visits back to the surgeon to adjust the band with the injection or suction of saline solution to achieve optimal constriction. The band is tightened or loosened so that hunger is best controlled but not too tight for digested food not to flow freely. [7]

Obese people can expect to lose 33% to 50% of their excess weight after undergoing this procedure and can be achieved slower than with Gastric Bypass surgery over a 3-year period. [6] In addition, gastric banding can be reversed once the obesity is corrected or when the proper BMI is achieved, if the patient so desires. [8].

(3) Gastric Bypass Surgery

The most popular form of gastric bypass surgery is the Roux-en-Y gastric bypass where a small stomach pouch is formed using a stapler device, and connected to the distal small intestine. The upper section of the small intestine is then re-connected to form a Y-shaped configuration. About 140,000 gastric bypass surgery has been done as of 2005 to make it the most widely used bariatric surgery. But its success has been largely due to the stringent post-surgery compliance to a prescribed diet and eating pattern. [1]

Health Benefits

Medical studies have shown that bariatric surgery can cause significant long-term weight loss efficacy, recovery from diabetes, improvement in cardiovascular risk factors, and halving statistical mortality rates reduced from 40% to 23%. [2] In addition, the more popular forms of bariatric surgery have been known to lose about 40% to 50% of unwanted weight. That's because the smaller stomach resulting from the surgery makes you feel full faster every meal and thus, decreases your food cravings and consumption.

Complications and side effects

Complications from any kind of surgery are high and barbaric surgery complications are common. A study of 2522 insurance claims showed that about 22% suffered initial complications while 40% suffered complications within 6 months of surgery. Some of the more common complications include:

-Diarrhea and bloating after meals (gastric dumping syndrome), requiring medication or smaller meals: 20%
-Leaks at the surgical site (12%),
-Incisional hernia (7%),
-Surgical wound Infections (6%)
-Pneumonia: 4%

Mortality rate among patients with no known co-morbidities is small at 0.2%. Most of complications have been observed to be common among patients aged over 40. However, they were significantly reduced when bariatric surgery is performed by seasoned doctors or surgeons. [3] A study on the end-point safety of bariatric surgery shows that mortality, serious complications, re-interventions and further hospitalization occurred in 1.0% of patients who underwent laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding, 4.8% in laparoscopic gastric bypass, and 7.8% in open gastric bypass. [4] Gastric banding procedure has shown the least complication rate. But as with any surgery, band gastric surgery carries the same risk of wound infections and minor bleeding which can often be treated with antibiotics.

 Conclusion

If you are obese or overweight with a body mass index (BMI) of 35 or higher, undergoing restrictive bariatric surgical procedure is generally safe when performed by experienced surgeons or healthcare professionals specializing in the process. In February 2011, the FDA reduced the recommended BMI threshold to 30 for those considering the process. This opened up the surgical weight loss solution even to those with moderate obesity. If you are even moderately obese and have been going through diet and exercise regimens for years with little or no success, a bariatric surgery such as gastric banding or gastric bypass surgery can be your most effective and long lasting weight management solution.

Sources:
[1] http://www.news-medical.net/health/Bariatric-Surgery-What-is-Bariatric-Surgery.aspx
[2] http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMe0904837
[3] http://www.news-medical.net/health/Bariatric-Surgery-Side-Effects.aspx
[4] http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMe0904837
[5] http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/weightlosssurgery.html
[6] http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/007388.htm
[7] http://www.webmd.com/diet/weight-loss-surgery/gastric-banding-surgery-for-weight-loss
[8] http://www.seaviewsurgeon.com.au/surgery-treatments/gastric-banding/