ISAA Condemns Weight Loss Surgery For Children
| Released November 5, 2002
PRESS RELEASE – For Immediate Release!
Contact:
ISAA Condemns Weight Loss Surgery For Kids
AUSTIN, TX - The International Size Acceptance Association (ISAA) condemns the practice of performing gastric bypass (or weight loss surgery – WLS) on teenage and pre-teen children. ISAA recognizes the rise in the rate of obesity in children and encourages parents to spend more interactive time with their kids and help them become more involved in physical activities such as sports while reducing time spent in front of the television and on computer games. ISAA suggests reducing family intake of fast foods in favor of healthier food choices.
ISAA has formally been against WLS since 2001. According to the U.S. National Institutes of Health, WLS has a 40% complication rate, a 50% weight regain rate and at least 1 in 100 adults die from WLS procedures. The NIH has referred to WLS as “induced bulimia” and Dr. Matthias Fobi (creator of the “Fobi Pouch” used on Rosanne Barr) refers to his procedure as “induced anorexia.” WLS often leads to obsession with food and other serious eating-disordered behaviors.
“Gastric bypass surgery mutilates a key organ we need to survive, the stomach, and rearranges the digestive system to make it do something it was never designed to do,” said ISAA Director Allen Steadham. “You shouldn’t subject adults to that, much less children!”
WLS causes malabsorption, which deprives the body of critical nutrients, including calcium and potassium, which can lead to teenage osteoporosis, compromised immune systems and immunity-related diseases. Other complications of WLS are painful gastrointestinal distress, leaking of gastric juices into the chest cavity, infection, deterioration of teeth (erosion of enamel caused by repeated vomiting), flatulence, uncomfortable and highly odorous bowel movements and/or loose stools. Many WLS procedures have to be repeated, which substantially increases the risks of complications and death.
ISAA’s Official position on WLS is located online at:
The Mission of the International Size Acceptance Association (ISAA) is to promote size acceptance and fight size discrimination throughout the world by means of advocacy and visible, lawful actions.
ISAA's primary purpose is to end the most common form of size discrimination and bigotry -- that against fat children and adults.
-30- |