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By J. MATTHEW COBB BEING OVERWEIGHT and out-of-shape has to be one of the most disturbing and alarming problems in our country’s social fabric today. Everywhere you turn, you see new exercise equipment being advertised on late-night TV, gyms popping up on corners quicker than title loan shops and uncanny diet books invading the New York best-seller’s lists. The obsession of looking fat-bulous is old news and the goal of being “hot and sexy” is the hottest fad since Nintendo hit the shelves. But in America, the easy way - also known as the “short cut” - to being lean and trimmed is a milestone from exercising right, eating healthy foods, reading nutrition facts on the box and avoiding those pesky carbs. In fact, the number of people undergoing weight-loss surgeries has skyrocketed. According to a recent study in the December issue of Archives of Surgery, bariatric operations increased 450% between 1998 and 2002, going from 12,775 to 70,256. Over 140,000 procedures were performed in 2004 and an estimated 171,200 will be done this year alone. The numbers regarding complication woes are just as disturbing, even though the media won’t tell you that. According to sources, the overall complication rate of these type of surgeries ranges from 7% for laparoscopic procedures to 14.5% for operations through open incisions, during the thirty days following surgery. Complications that may trouble the surgery include infection, hemorrhage, hernia, bowel obstruction, anastamotic leakage and dumping syndrome, among other things. “One of the reasons for the increase in gastric bypasses is that more people are choosing laparoscopy, which requires less recovery time,” says study author Ninh Nguyen, associate professor of surgery at the University of California School of Medicine in Irvine. Laparoscopic operations increased from about 2% of all bariatric surgeries in 1998 to 18% in 2002, he says. The operation normally cost around $26,000 and is performed on people who are extremely obese, 100 or more pounds over a healthy weight. Over the years, celebrities and high-profiled entertainers have taken a nosedive into the wonder procedure and the results have created both a freak-like stigma from conservatives and to some, a cure against fat. NBC’s Today Show weather anchor Al Roker, one of the first posterchilds of the gastric bypass surgery, publicly announced his decision to have the procedure done months after the operation and acknowledged his 100-pound drop off his 320-pound figure. His transformation may have led to the fixation America has for the newfound medical phenomenon. But having the surgery comes with a cost - one that Star Jones-Reynolds, former co-host of The View, has strained to live down.
Earlier last week, Star Jones-Reynolds came out the closet with her confession of having gastric bypass surgery - something she painfully disclosed from the public but decided to reveal in the September issue of Glamour magazine. "Everything about me was already so public (mostly my own doing — talk about dumb!), so of course everyone wanted to know what I had done," she writes. "I was also terrified someone would have a tragic result after emulating me without making an informed decision with her doctor." "But the complete truth is, I was scared of what people might think of me," she continues. "I was afraid to be vulnerable, and ashamed at not being able to get myself under control without this procedure." In her recent published memoir, Jones-Reynolds lightly discussed her weight loss being a result of “medical intervention”. Former co-host of The View Rosie O’ Donnell jumped into the ring of attacks that the public had already fired up to radically criticize Jones-Reynolds for not publicly admitting to have gastric bypass surgery. Keeping her decision private made her “a hypocrite”, she says, because she had been so outspoken about her firing as co-host of ABC's "The View" last year. But the public didn’t need her or Rosie O’ Donnell’s commentary on this subject, since it was so obvious that her weight loss was not a result of increased exercise habits. Since the surgery, Jones-Reynolds has shed a drastic 160 pounds in a three year period. In recent events, the gospel music community has since jumped upon the new “cure” against obesity or fat living. Vanessa Bell Armstrong, a bonafide music legend in the gospel arena, recently opened up to DetroitGospel.com about her physical transformation due to her mostly-concealed gastric bypass surgery. “My parents on both sides [of my family] have high blood pressure. And one of my girlfriends said she that she had it done [gastric bypass surgery] and twelve days after she had it done, the doctor took her off of her blood pressure medicine. And I said “What! Where is that doctor?” The renowned singer admitted that now her health and blood pressure is fine. Since the operation, Armstrong has lost a considerable amount of weight, even though she was never considered medically to be obese or overweight. Bariatric speculations have since focused on Karen Clark-Sheard, a prominent gospel singer and lead vocalist of eighties’ group The Clark Sisters, regarding her major weight loss since her health scare in 2001 after facing a life-threatening blood clot formed during a scheduled hernia surgery operation. The before-and-after photos of Karen Clark-Sheard reveal a substantial amount of weight reduction from her frame - even though Clark-Sheard has not revealed exactly what caused the weight to disappear. But it is certain that the alarming number of gospel artists in today’s industry are not as healthy and fit as they should be. Possibly, the gastric bypass surgery may be the answer and way out. It may create an unhealthy buzz around their image and with certain conservative groups, but it seems to be the most popular and easiest way out of such an unhealthy situation. Let's just pray in the end that their healthy steps will remained ordered by the Lord. There may be some truth in those cliche' words of ole: "If it's too good to be true, then it's not." OTHER VALUABLE RESOURCES TO LOOK INTO:
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