• Question: What is a gastrick band?

    Asked by norman to Zoe, Sharon, Louise, Jon, Daniel on 22 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Louise Dash

      Louise Dash answered on 22 Jun 2010:

      Hi Norman (hey, that was my dad’s name!)

      A gastric band is an inflatable silicone band that goes around the top of your stomach so that you can only eat tiny meals and hence lose weight. It’s a very extreme solution though as you can never eat normally afterwards, and can be very dangerous as it involves surgery. But for people that are so heavy that it’s endangering their health, it can be helpful.

    • Photo: Sharon Sneddon

      Sharon Sneddon answered on 22 Jun 2010:

      Hi Norman,
      A gastric band is an operation that involves fitting a band around the upper part of your stomach. It is usually only recommended as a last resort for people who are morbidly obese (those with a BMI of over 40), or those with a BMI of between 30-40 who also have a condition that poses a serious health risk, such as diabetes, high blood pressure (hypertension), or heart disease.

      If you are very obese, gastric banding can be used as a way of helping you to lose weight by controlling the amount of food that you eat. As it reduces the amount of space you have in your stomach, you can only eat very small portions of food, so you should loose weight.
      It’s always used as a last resort, and other methods should be tried first, like a healthy diet and excercise. It can be quite dangerous having one fitted as obese people can have complications from general anaesthetics.

    • Photo: Jon Copley

      Jon Copley answered on 22 Jun 2010:

      It’s an adjustable band that can be fitted around the upper part of the stomach to make a pouch. The pouch is smaller than the rest of the stomach, so it fills up quickly with food (and then the person feels full). The food then passes more slowly from the pouch created by band to the rest of the stomach. Because someone with a gastric band feels full sooner when they are eating, they eat less.

    • Photo: Daniel Richardson

      Daniel Richardson answered on 22 Jun 2010:

      I think it is an elastic band that goes around your stomach and makes it smaller so you can fit less in. So you can’t overeat as much and so lose weight. Or, you could just take the band and put it around the happy meal so you can’t open the burger box

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