Gastric Banding- the Next Wave of Elective Surgeries

As if we didn't have enough elective surgery being done in this country, what with all the nose jobs, boob jobs, and every other type of job, here's the next medical wave ready to hit us: gastric banding- a surgical process in which the victim's, er....I mean patient's upper stomach is retrofitted with a silicon band to limit food intake. Think of it as an internal corset.

The Wall Street Journal reports that companies like Johnson & Johnson and Allergan, Inc. are gearing up their marketing machines to reach out to all of the coach potatoes out there who want to lose a lot of weight. They see a vast market out there in TV land and want to exploit the fact that we're a nation of obese do-nothings.

My message to those people who are considering gastric banding- TiVo "The Biggest Loser" and watch it faithfully every week, start exercising on a regular basis, and stop jamming bags of Doritos into your face! Remember, gastric banding is still major surgery and can cost from $15,000-$40,ooo and few insurance companies cover this surgery. You need a lifestyle change, not a drive-thru solution to your problem.

Sure, gastric banding is probably the easier and quicker solution, but what does that say about us as a culture? The demand for a process like this should be so small that the Johnson and Johnson's of the world wouldn't even consider wasting valuable marketing dollars on mega marketing campaigns that would reach such a limited audience. Instead, we reach for the quick fix, just like we reach for the next slice of pepperoni.

Americans complain and gripe about health care costs, but spend billions of dollars on surgeries that would've been prevented with proper diet and exercise. We complain about high gas prices too, but most of us are too lazy to walk down the block on an errand. We could fatten our wallets at the same time we downsize our backsides. But no!

The media spouts on and on about the obesity epidemic but obsesity is merely a symptom, not the cause. Our real epidemic is laziness. I wonder if Johnson & Johnson has a pill for that?