According to the recent article discussed in class, “Surgery may cure diabetes in overweight” first time readers may be given a false first impression that the article actually has found a “cure” for diabetes. It isn’t only until you read the entire article that you notice something misleading and that no cure was found just an expensive quick alternative. Let me first begin my mentioning that the study was funded by Allergan Health and was provided laparoscopic adjustable gastric bands without charge from the manufactures. Therefore a bias is noted from the beginning in favor of the $20,000 LAP-BAND surgery (coincidence??). The study presented in the article involved 55 randomized patients that were obese and have had a history of type 2 diabetes. These patients were divided into two different groups; first group focused on treating the patients with standard diabetic care and the second group focused on treating with the LAP-BAND surgery. The results presented in this article showed that 22 out of the 29 patients in the LAP-BAND surgery group showed diabetes remission while 4 out of 26 patients with the standard diabetic care showed diabetes remission. With such staggering results one might overestimate the accuracy of this study, at least at first glance. Even though not explained in this article, the study published in the journal of the American Medical Association mentioned that the definition of diabetes remission used was a fasting plasma glucose level of less than 126mg/dL. Therefore not even an oral glucose tolerance was necessary to determine diabetes remission. Not only was this study limited because of size, it is also limited because the results did not show an accurate way to determine whether diabetic remission was achieved.
My personal opinion about the LAP-BAND surgery according to this article is NEA! I think that there is more to “curing” diabetes than just a quick fix surgery. Patients have to make lifestyle changes. They have to change their sedentary lifestyle and start involving diet and exercise into their daily activities. Yes, the surgery will provide temporary weight loss, but is it the pounds that matters or the eventual remission of diabetes? Overall, there are more factors than obesity that influence the onset and progression of type 2 diabetes and LAP-BAND surgery doesn’t show a permanent cure for the disease.
This was a lay article obtained from azcentral.com.
Johnson, Carla. "Surgery May Cure Diabetes in Overweight." Azcentral.com. Web.
No way! Diet and Exercise!!!!
ReplyDeleteI found this to be quite comical:
ReplyDeletehttp://picasaweb.google.com/jlmartin12389/BlogPix?feat=directlink
This ad popped up on the side of my FB page and it makes me think about all the false hope that the media supplies to a society that craves it! Just like the article discussed about advertised the "cure" for diabetes, this ad just says "safe, permanent way to lose weight." This pulls on the heartstrings of Americans who are all about quick fixes. Probably pulls on the heartstrings of those who yo-yo diet with their promise of "permanent" weight loss. This is another aspect of the study that is not discussed in the above lay article. What is the longevity of the surgery?
On lapband.com, there is a tab to view information about the surgery for "months and beyond."
Some of their advice:
"Remember all you’ve learned. As you progress, it may help to keep in mind all you’ve learned about eating, drinking, and exercise with the LAP-BAND® System. Check out our simple list of reminders in Lifestyle Guidelines."
Hey... look at that! Lifestyle guidelines! Put THAT in the advertisement and see how many people are interested in Lap-Bands then! It becomes simple to see that the advertisement for a "quick fix," while not strictly false, does not encompass the entire truth. I'm with Diana: NEA!
Oh yeah... and apparently a lap-band improves your social life. In case anyone didn't know, it has the magical ability to "quick fix" you some more friends on FB. We should all get Lap-Bands so we can be super-cool and LUV OUR LAP BANDS too! Just say'n.
http://lapbandsolutions.com/abouttheprocess.html.
ReplyDeleteThis is a website explaining the Lap Band procedure. In the 2nd to last paragraph the the author wrote "severe obese people can never achieve long-term weight loss with dietary or behavioral modifications alone. A 100% failure rate is reported and a series of failures will again lead to enormous psychological problems."
The purpose of this paragraph is to scare people with obesity. Especially saying that changing of diet and behavior leads to 100% failure, and it may cause you psychological disorders. I have seen people losing significant amount of weight solely on continuous exercise and healthy diet. Most of the time the problem is that people give up too easily. If they do not see significant changes in their weight during the first or second week then they immediately assume that dieting/exercising isn't working.
I appreciate the enthusiasm for diet and exercise, as a safer and possibly less costly alternative to lap band surgery for morbid obesity, and I congratulate the sharp eye that detected the bias introduced by the funding source of the study.
ReplyDeleteI urge you to be compassionate to those who struggle with obesity. Nobody chooses to be fat.
Society condemns the obese, as merely lazy or gluttonous. But consider this-the environment is obesogenic, and those who are disadvantaged by poverty or substandard education are at highest risk. Our government subsidizes corn, making the fare at McDonalds or in the packaged food aisle at the grocery store much cheaper than fruits and vegetables. A shopper can purchase 5 boxes of Kraft macaroni and cheese for the same price as a pound of peaches-and I am talking about peaches on sale for $1 per pound at the height of the season, not $4/pound organic peaches from South America at Whole Foods in December. If you are living on food stamps, and trying to fill your hungry childrens' bellies, which would you choose?
I would encourage the readers to consider that there may be a role for surgery in the management (not cure) of obesity. It is not a decision to be taken lightly. The operation carries a 1% mortality rate. Although this risk compares favorably with the risk of untreated obesity, a person willing to take a 1% risk of dying should have exhausted all other options.
A well-managed obesity surgery program, e.g. the Kaiser-Permanente program, includes extensive counseling on diet and exercise before surgery is offered. Some people find that they are able to lose weight with this program alone, and avoid the surgery. Those who do go on to surgery have better outcomes than those who are not part of such a program. BTW-I have no connection to Kaiser, I am not a shill for them-I just think they have a good program. I'm sure there are many other good programs out there.
I wish that we could solve the obesity epidemic with diet and exercise alone, but I think we must consider all of the tools at our disposal to help those who suffer with this disease.
I agree that the Lap band or gastric bypass surgeries should be the last alternatives for people with weight problems. However, working in physical therapy office you see it time and time again, a never ending cycle that can't be broken. People come in with back and knee problems and its because of their weight, they can't exercise to lose the weight because of their back or knee problems. Sometimes people have to make a hard decision to have a risky surgery in order to improve their life, it doesn't mean that they themselves aren't willing to change their lifestyle because most have to pay something towards the surgery. Surgery is an option and for those who need and want to lose weight and help their bodies they might need that assistance. While I agree with you that this article is extremely bias and that a cure for diabetes has more to do with than just weight I think that it is sometimes the best option for those who are in an never ending cycle.
ReplyDeleteMy objective with this post was to show that there could be bias in any article that we read, especially lay articles. How the information was presented in this specific article made it seen that LAP-BAND surgery was the ultimate "cure" for diabetes, when in fact it is a newly researched alternative. Of course no one chooses to be obese, but this article misleads readers to believe that the surgery will solve their health issues in a matter of days, which I do not agree with. The article failed to showed the adverse effects of the surgery and only focused on the positive outcomes such as diabetes remission by fasting glucose levels. I definitely agree that surgery may be an option for people struggling with weight, but reading this article alone does not have me 100% convinced.
ReplyDeleteJen, I also read that Facebook advertisement after I posted on the blog! It was great! I couldn't believe that they are advertising it on Facebook! I can't imagine how many people click the link and probably consult their doctors within a few weeks inquiring about more information. It was interesting to see that much of the research presented on this website was done by same research group from Australia that conducted the study from the lay article.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad someone posted about this!
Diana, That so funny! At first it makes me wonder what they're thinking, because realistically, how many people are going to "Like" an advertisement like that, which will later be presented on their news feed... but hey, I'm not the advertiser for the company. But if you and I saw it, then it must be a pretty big ad going around right now. That's so funny (and yet sadly un-shocking) to hear about the research info! Oh what a twisted web they weave...
ReplyDelete