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Adhesions and polyps, massive scar tissue, advanced aging, anemia, arthritis, blackouts/fainting, bloating, body secretions (odor like rotten meat), bowel/fecal impaction, cancer (of the stomach, esophagus, pancreas, and bowel), chest pain from vomitting, circulation impairment, cold intolerance, constipation, depression, diarrhea, digestive impairment due to heavy mucus, digestive irregularities, diverticulitis, drainage problems at incision, early onset of diabetes, early onset of hypertension, electrolyte imbalance, erosion of tooth enamel, excessive dry skin, excessive stomach acid, esophageal contraction, esophageal erosion and scarring, feeling ill, gallbladder distress, gynecological complications, hair loss, hemorrhoids, hernia, hormone imbalances, impaired mobility, infection from leakage into body cavities (peritonitis), infertility, intestinal atrophy, intestinal gas, involuntary anorexia, irregular body fat distribution (lumpy body), iron deficient, kidney impairment and failure, liver impairment and failure, loss of energy, loss of muscle control, loss of skin integrity, low hemoglobin, lowered immunity and increased susceptibility to illnesses, malfunction of the pituitary gland, muscle cramps, nausea, neural tube defects in your children, neurological impairment (nerve and brain damage), osteoporosis, pancreas impairment, pain along the left side, pain of digestion, pain on evacuation, peeling of fingernails, potassium loss, pulmonary embolus, putrid breath and stomach odor, rectal bleeding, shrinking of intestines, stomach pain, sleep irregularities, suicidal thoughts, thyroid malfunction, urinary tract infection, vitamin and mineral deficiency, vitamin and mineral malabsorption, violent hiccups that persist daily, vomiting from blockage, vomiting from drinking too fast, vomiting from eating too fast, vomiting from eating too much (more than 2 ounces) and… weight regain. Let’s talk about bariatric surgery- aka weight loss surgery- and why it’s been so easily accepted within the medical community despite an overwhelming occurrence of severe side effects compared to other surgeries and procedures.

Typically, when speaking in terms of energy, the base point is the law of thermodynamics. However, applying the law of thermodynamics directly to a physiological system without taking into account outside factors would be naive to say the least, considering it doesn’t even translate well to car engines. To put it in simple terms, the human body has a set weight point determined by adolescent development, and, almost to the extent of its role in height, genetics. The human body has evolved to be incredibly efficient, therefore moving outside the set weight point is considerably difficult. On average, the body will only tolerate going 5-10 pounds beneath the set point. More than that, the body will rubber band back to the set point that has now increased by 15-20 pounds in case of another of what your body thought was famine. Fat is one of the best nutrient storages, which your body has an interest in preserving, so going further than the 5-10 pound wiggle room, the body will start to eat away at muscle rather than fat. This is why the heart of someone with an eating disorder will give while they still have body fat to burn; the body was literally turning to the heart muscle as a nutrient source rather than fat. Before your body will reach the point past the 5-10 pounds, it will become even more efficient and lower the required caloric intake. This is why a loss of 10% or more of body weight is only maintained by less than 5% of people. As more weight is lost, metabolic speed lowers and set weight point rises, until eventually your body has become so super awesome good at preserving energy that your caloric need will be so low that you will start gaining weight, even though there has been no change in caloric intake.

Naturally, humans decided to flip off nature, and invented weight loss surgery. The most common bariatric surgery, gastric bypass, is a procedure that makes the stomach smaller and makes food BYPASS some of the small intestine. Patients can only eat about five ounces of food at a time, which, yes, leads to a lower caloric intake, but also leads to a lower everything intake. Along with the gigantic list of side effects I read off in the beginning of my speech, bariatric surgery has a concerningly high mortality rate. In the short term of a month, the mortality rate is fairly low, being only two to five people out of every thousand. This increases with time, and jumps to 5 percent of patients within the first year. At the end of four years, the mortality rate has increased by 250%. It's theorized that these numbers are too low, for if someone is to die from heart disease caused by bariatric surgery, then the cause of death is reported as heart disease. Bariatric surgery, on average, cuts 10 years off of a patient's life span. That's right, people are undergoing weight loss surgery because they're told that they're weight is going to kill them, yet they die EARLIER with it. These mortality rates do not include the higher rates of suicide among those who have undergone bariatric surgery. The eagerness in which doctors are willing to suggest/perform such procedures highlights a fairly disconcerting reality: people would rather die than be fat.

It comes as no surprise, considering the way fat people are treated. Fatphobia has been described as one of the last acceptable forms of prejudice, because disrespecting fat people is one of the least polarized issues. Think about it, a thin person was able to come up here, open with how much they eat junk food, and state that it’s perfectly fine for thin people to be unhealthy but fat people should not be able to practice those same habits. This person then went on to describe the look of disgust on their face when they saw a fat young girl, but also speak as if body image problems are an inherent reality of being fat. I’m going to let you guys in on a little secret: fat people have eyes. That little girl has body image issues because she can see the way people look at her, not because it’s a natural occurrence. Fatphobia doesn’t end with people looking at you with disgust, or not looking in your eyes while they talk to you, or people treating you differently (by acting like you’re not there, by seating the person behind you in line, etc). It spills over into medicine.

Fun story, once I was doing something youthful and irresponsible and my body ended up having a high speed impact with concrete. Spoiler: I broke a bone. After a few days of pain, I decided to go to the doctor. There, without even doing any sort of doctor-y things that this person spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to learn to do at medical school, the doctor told me to lose weight. Even though I told them about the high speed impact I had with concrete. This wasn’t anything new, when I was little and went in for flu shots doctors managed to harass me about my weight. I’m almost certain I could be impaled by a spear and doctors would tell me weight is causing my large amounts of blood loss. So I went about my normal life, for about a week. I ended up going to the ER because I couldn’t walk and was in excruciating pain. Before this I didn’t really like going to doctors, but after I flat out refused. Earlier this year I’m pretty sure I had pneumonia because I could hear fluid in my lungs when I inhaled, and I still refused to go to the doctor. After doing some research, I learned that receiving mediocre treatment from doctors is a near universal fat experience, which causes fat people not to want to go to the doctor for fear of being essentially bullied. If you couldn’t make the connection-- fat people don’t get medical treatment because they’re harassed about their weight, which is hidden under the guise of “concern for your health.” Which, in my opinion, is the ultimate display of irony.

In the America I want to grow up in, I want people to develop basic reasoning skills. Harassing someone about their weight because of “concern” is a detriment to mental health, and can lead to detriments of physical health, such as people literally dying from mutilating their stomach and intestines so they can only eat a palmful of food at a time, and starve away some body weight.

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