While morbidly obese (100 or more pounds overweight) people typically try many diets and weight-loss programs-many of them unsafe-few are successful in achieving significant, permanent weight loss.
In their search for a way to lose weight, many of the severely overweight are considering surgery.
One surgical technique that has become increasingly refined over the past few years is bilio-pancreatic diversion, or BPD.
”Simply described,” explains Dr. G. Wesley Clark of the Alvarado Center for Surgical Weight Control in San Diego, ”BPD works by removing a section of the stomach, rearranging the small bowel and diverting the bile and pancreatic secretions away from the food stream for most of its course. What results is a selective loss of absorption, so that starches and fats are eliminated while the body continues to absorb proteins, simple sugars, vitamins and minerals.”
