According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one out of every three American adults is obese. Obesity is generally defined as being more than 20 percent over ideal weight, which takes into account the person's height, age, sex and build. Obesity is more precisely defined by the National Institutes of Health as a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 30 and above. Many people fighting the battle to lose weight ride a rollercoaster of fad diets and pills, gym memberships and exercise programs, but, with varying success.
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Weight loss tool
Researchers at Carolinas Medical Center are testing a new experimental device that may offer a less invasive weight loss alternative for patients who are seriously obese.
 
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New drugs like the popular weight loss pill Alli are getting a lot of attention, but they come with some major side effects -- a person who takes the drug and then consumes too much fatty food can find themselves with a serious case of diarrhea. For some, it seems no weight-loss alternative really seems to work, and especially when it comes to getting long-term results, and keeping the weight off.
Some say this is why so many people have begun to opt for a surgical alternative: bariatric surgery. This year, more than 200,000 weight loss or bariatric operations will be performed in the United States. The number of these surgeries has increased by ten times in just the last ten years. The most prominent types of weight loss surgery are gastric bypass and laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding, also known as "Lap Band." The surgeries are different in approach, but the general goal is to surgically reduce or limit the capacity of the stomach and thereby limit how much the patient is able to eat. In optimal situations, bariatric surgery can lead to substantial weight loss, especially for those who are more than 100 pounds overweight. And because obesity has now been linked to a variety of serious health problems, patients say there is more to making this kind of choice than simple vanity -- for many, their long-term health is a concern as well. Obesity puts people at increased risk for chronic diseases such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke and some forms of cancer.
Researchers at Carolinas Medical Center are testing a new experimental device that may offer a less invasive weight loss alternative for patients who are seriously obese. It involves a device called an Endobarrier. The Endobarrier is a sleeve that is placed in the body without surgery. It lines the first two feet of into the patient's small intestine, to help them lose weight. The Endobarrier works by preventing food from being absorbed until it reaches the lower bowel. Patients who participated in a three month trial with the Endobarrier lost more weight than those who did not have the device. All of the participants in the short term study were at least 100 pounds overweight and were seeking weight loss surgery in the future. Currently, the Endobarrier is being explored only on an experimental basis and only as a prelude to weight loss surgery and not as an alternative to surgery, but Carolinas Medical Center physician Dr. Keith Gersin says its future as a non-surgical alternative is exciting. Future studies will explore longer term weight loss effects of the Endobarrier device.
