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The FDA has approved a new surgical device for weight loss, a manual pump that drains food out of your stomach. Surgeons place the “Aspire Assist” device by inserting a tube in the stomach through an abdominal incision.
The tube is then connected to a port valve outside of the abdomen. After eating, the patient can open the valve and drain stomach contents into the toilet.
Anyone else heard of this? I think it sounds incredibly disgusting but I suppose if it helps people lose weight it is a good thing.
I'm not for it...it's basically medical bullemia. There really has to be a better way than this.
That's what I thought. Although my understanding is that people who are bulimic tend to experience some kind of relief from the actual purging that goes beyond emptying the stomach. Maybe I'm wrong...But that operation seems like such horrible medicine.
As someone who has struggled with bulimia in the past, it seems exactly like medical bulimia to me. I'm not against surgery to help people lose weight, but the other methods actually promote them eating less and healthier. This does nothing to address the issue of compulsive overeating.
As someone who has struggled with bulimia in the past, it seems exactly like medical bulimia to me. I'm not against surgery to help people lose weight, but the other methods actually promote them eating less and healthier. This does nothing to address the issue of compulsive overeating.
This. The thing is, for a majority of "stuffers," an ED is indeed already present. There aren't all that many physical issues common to first-world nations that cause stuffing. Prader-Willi syndrome can, but that's a very small percentage of the population. Extreme parasitic infection can; again, this is comparatively uncommon in first-world conditions. I suppose some medications could also fall into this category...for example, steroid medications. I get that.
But bingeing in areas where food is plentiful and certain diseases and issues (such as parasite-infested drinking water) aren't largely present, as far as any research I've ever read tends to have a psychological cause more frequently than a physical one. Now if it is a physical cause, the physical cause would need to be what's addressed...wouldn't it? Rather than just emptying via a tube following stuffing? And if it's a medication, wouldn't you be busily finding a substitute medication with less of an overeating side effect? (I don't say that in a cavalier way...been there, done that. A percentage of people would have no choice - certain steroids, for example - but these would by no means be the overwhelming majority of the population. They'd just be a percentage.) So I'm still not seeing the up side of this device.
As far as the bulimia tie-in...I would think the relief of "emptying" could quickly become psychological given the already psychological nature of the need to stuff/binge. You're already dealing with a psychological issue tied to eating and control of the body and, occasionally, going out of control (the stuffing portion). I can't see that it would be such a huge step for the other half of the equation to click into place and an overall sense of well-being to happen due to emptying, and eventually, a dependence forming in certain people.
I don't have any evidence to back this, I'm not a researcher, but it seems logical to me. I could be way off-base. I am just struggling and struggling to see an upside here. I can't find one. It find the idea of this device really distressing, actually...and almost a sort of a caricature of the 21st century first-world condition. It's like something some alarmist writer would have come up with. "In the future, people will be so wealthy as far as the ability to obtain food that they'll stuff themselves until they need to empty the food out with a tube...then they can stuff again."
I hate judging in this way since I know how very hard it can be to lose weight, or to maintain a healthy weight, but this device is just sort of a bridge too far for me. It's not my business who uses it, I'm just putting in my $.02.
As someone who has struggled with bulimia in the past, it seems exactly like medical bulimia to me. I'm not against surgery to help people lose weight, but the other methods actually promote them eating less and healthier. This does nothing to address the issue of compulsive overeating.
Surgically enabled bulimia. Sad. I guess we will find out down the road if it works.
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