Bypass surgery may cause drinking problems

Tim · Supporter Joined: 03 Mar 2006 Posts: 235

People who undergo radical gastric bypass surgeries in a desperate effort to get slimmer could be putting themselves at risk or drinking more alcohol and putting on weight again.

The gastric bypass surgery does not only reduce the size of the stomach, it also heightens the effects of alcohol. Gastric bypass surgery patients have been found to get drunk quicker and take longer to get sober. They are also in danger of swapping their food addiction to alcohol addiction.
Besides having a socially relaxing effect, alcohol also relaxes the body which I turn allows people to eat more food.

The patients who underwent the surgery need to go easy on alcohol and be educated about the potential weight gain from it.

Health experts conducted a study in which they measured alcohol effects in 19 gastric bypass patients and 17 people who had not had the surgery. Both groups were supposed to drink five ounces of red wine within 15 minutes.

They all had their breaths for alcohol every five minutes until the levels dropped. The gastric bypass patients reached a breath-alcohol peak of 0.08 % in comparison to the control group's peak breath-alcohol level of 0.05 %. The bypass patients needed longer to return to zero breath-alcohol level. It took them on average 108 minutes compared to 72 minutes for the control group. The study results also showed that gastric bypass surgery changes the way alcohol is metabolized.

Gastric bypass surgeries have been on decline in UK as doctors prefer to use safer techniques.

Bypass surgery may cause drinking problems

LIFEFORM SOCIAL COMMUNITY NETWORK