Surgeon: Surgery may be weight loss answer

Many try to lose weight and fail, and surgery is not an easy way out, nor should it be taken lightly -- but it may be the answer for some, a U.S. doctor says. Dr. Scott Cunneen -- director of bariatric surgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and author of "Weighty Issues: Getting the Skinny on Weight Loss Surgery" -- said with two-thirds of the United States falling into the category of overweight to morbidly obese, being overweight has reached epidemic proportions. "It not just a matter of wanting to squeeze into those favorite jeans," Cunneen said in a statement. "For many people, it's a matter of life and death -- due to the rampant incidence of type 2 diabetes, hypertension, heart disease and other maladies associated with obesity." Gastric bypass, gastric band and sleeve gastrectomy operations all involve major surgery, with some procedures more risky than others, Cunneen said. "And it's up to patients and their primary physicians to determine whether or not the risk of unchecked obesity is greater than the risk of surgery, which routinely results in the resolution of several illnesses caused or exacerbated by being overweight," Cunneen said. In his book, Cunneen describes each procedure and emphasized the responsibility of the patient to comply with the changes required to make these operations work. "It's a huge, lifelong commitment as well as a complete change of lifestyle with regard to one's relationship with food, a very powerful relationship for most of us," Cunneen said.