There are options for anyone wishing to lose weight and become healthy or stay healthy.
Option #1 -  Change your eating habits and eat nutritionally sound. Begin and continue with a good sound physical fitness program.  Take daily nutritional supplements.

Option #2 - Have gastric bypass surgery.  For the next few months vomit and have diarrhea.  Eat only foods that won't make you sick, usually giving up many foods that you now eat and enjoy.  Take supplements out of necessity not by choice.  Have limited physical activity for 6 months to a year.  Face the possibility of more surgery as well as sepsis, stomach leaks or blood clots.

Option #1 has always been available and to my knowledge hasn't been fatal to this point, Option #2 is relatively new and has been fatal.  In fact some surgeons in the gastric bypass field put the mortality rate as high as 1 in 100.

If this all sounds alarming to you, it should.  A surgery that has long been a "last-ditch" effort for obese adults is now being used on obese teens as well.  Unfortunately as expressed previously, this "last-ditch" effort could end up being their last effort.....ever.

Gastric bypass surgery entails stapling or stitching off part of the stomach to form a small pouch.  The pouch is about the size of an egg.  This limits the amount of food a person can consume.  This is then attached to one end of the small intestine which has also been partially bypassed to reduce nutrient absorption.  Risks of this surgery include wound infections, stomach leaks and at times life-threatening blood clots.

The International Bariatric Surgery Registry puts the expected mortality rate at 1 in 1,000 patients dying within four weeks of the surgery and 3 in 1,000 patients dying within 3 months of the surgery.

There are guidelines however to which teens should be allowed to risk their lives with this surgery.
1) Teens must have weight related health problems and a BMI of 40 (120 lbs. overweight) or higher and serious medical complications such as Type 2 diabetes, sleep apnea or severe headaches caused by high blood pressure.  Note that sleep apnea, which can be fatal, is not limited to obese people and once the surgery is preformed the patient is unable to use a CPAP machine which is prescribed to force them to breath at night.  Now we've just doubled this person's possibility of death.
2) They must have failed organized attempts at weight loss over a six month period.
3) Adolescents need to have reached their full height and sexual maturity because of concerns about how surgery might affect their growth and development. That's about age 13 for girls and age 15 for boys.
4) Patients have to be motivated. It has to be something the teen wants, not something just the parents want.
5) Potential patients have to come from families that will be supportive of dietary, nutritional and physical activity recommendations after the operation.

After the surgery the patient will have to return to the office 1-2 weeks after surgery and then monthly for three months. They will then go every three months for one year and every six months for three years. After three years they should return yearly for life.  A healthy level of exercise is important to include in everyone’s daily life. Six to eight weeks after surgery, they are encouraged to resume activities that provide exercise and the expenditure of many calories: swimming, bicycling, tennis, golf, brisk walking, or even jogging.  They must also take supplements including Vitamins and Calcium to counter nutrient deficiencies including bone loss.

It seems to me that if you have to change your eating habits, take supplements and do at least light exercise that a non-lethal option such as Option #1 would be preferable.

What do you think?  Let me know by e-mail here.

COMMENTS FROM READERS

From a 16 year old reader <name withheld on request>
True its easy to say that if you still have to change your lifestyle then you should just take the old- fashioned method, but that's not always conventional for everyone. What about the people who have tried these methods yet still have failed suppose to do? It's not very mature as a professional for you to view this more serious treatment as " the easy way out" as you clearly stated it is quite far from being a walk in the park. You also have to realize that it's not for the people who just want to loss a quick 10 or 20lbs. You have to realize that this is for morbidly obese people who are over a 100 lbs. over weight. It is no way easy to lose a 100lbs. Anyway you see it. And for teenagers, like myself, It's even more strenuous. It's twice as hard for an adolescent to lose weight then an adult to begin with, so this mean that trying to lose 100 lbs. as a  teen is like losing 200 as an adult. But  besides all the scientific information Many people feel that they would rather risk their life then have to endure being morbidly obese any longer. Many doctor's are quick to say that they don't approve of this method for teens, but they don't have any idea how terrible the moral of life is when your at this state. People don't realize that not only do you have the medical problems like back, shoulder, neck and knee pain, but also you have to deal with the mental taunts and strains that media places on the society by putting such high emphasis on the thinner America. So being an overweight teen means that we have to go through the physical exhaustion of trying to keep up with life at a "Skinny" person's speed to keep from being furthered label then we already are, and the mental strain of being lonely, depressed and a lot of time missing out on our teen- hood, because of these problems. So yes, Gastric Bypass may have it's complications but in the long run for many people the pros outweigh the cons. That's why as a 16 yr old With a BMI of  44, I am seeking this method of corrective obesity surgery.

Note:
Of the negative responses to this commentary that I have received, this reader is the first to allow me to print her response.  She is correct in saying that I don't know what a teen in this condition goes through.  I would say that most people don't.  I have asked her to tell her story to me so that I may post it for the readers as well.  She has agreed to do so and I will post it as soon as it is received.