Obesity Surgery Can Tackle Hunger

By April Clarkson, April 30th, 2013 | Health | 0 Comments

The operation, which aims to reduce the size of the stomach, has been found to interfere with the secretion of hunger-regulating hormones, countering the relentless appetite that an obese person is most likely to have.

The study, as reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, also found that the operation stops “hedonistic” cravings, or eating for the pleasure of eating rather than hunger.

Bernd Schultes, the lead researcher, assured that the drive to eat is reduced after gastric bypass surgery. “That means the surgery has an impact on thoughts and feelings about food and eating. This is more than just reducing hunger,” he added.

Schultes insists that the procedure can be used to control the strong hedonistic appetites thought to cause obesity.

His team distributed questionnaires to 136 recipients of the operation, 123 severely obese people and 110 people of normal weight, querying the participant’s desire to eat sumptuous foods rather than actual consumption.

The results revealed the severely obese people to have a much higher drive to eat than the other groups whilst the recipients of gastric bypass had the same drive to eat as the people with the normal weight.

The reason for this appetite suppressing effect is currently under investigation. Surgery may impact on the appetite-regulating sectors of the brain caused by hormonal shifts, the researchers suggest.

Shultes plans to conduct further research into the operation.

Gastric Bypass surgery has become more and more popular since obesity rates began to sky-rocket. With a 45-75% success rate, the risky procedure usually results in half of a subject’s body weight being shed.