If obesity or extreme overweight has haunted you throughout the years, now there is a permanent solution that does not include the risks of gastric bypass surgery. It's called "adjustable gastric banding (AGB)," or gastric lap band, and rather than "bypassing" your stomach, leaving you permanently unable to obtain the nutrients your body needs from the foods that you eat, the lap band works by cinching the upper part of the stomach into a small pouch, so that if you're "banded," you get full and satiated faster.

This much safer alternative to gastric bypass doesn't remove part of the stomach and intestines from the digestive loop, it also doesn't present the bypass's 1-in-200 chance of death. The lap band is adjustable, meaning that the surgeon can actually adjust the band to your specific weight loss goals. It is also removable, which means that you don't have to live with this solution for life -- it doesn't require the "lifelong commitment" needed for gastric bypass surgery.

What is Obesity?
Obesity is a disease that affects nearly one-third of the adult American population (approximately 60 million). The number of overweight and obese Americans has continued to increase since 1960, a trend that is not slowing down. Today, 64.5 percent of adult Americans (about 127 million) are categorized as being overweight or obese.

Each year, obesity causes at least 300,000 excess deaths in the U.S., and healthcare costs of American adults with obesity amount to approximately $100 billion. Sanoviv offers the safe, less-invasive AGB procedure because of the health concern that so many Americans now face:

• Obesity is the second leading cause of unnecessary deaths
• Obesity is a chronic disease with a strong familial component.
• Obesity increases one's risk of high blood pressure, diabetes (type 2), heart disease, stroke, gallbladder disease and cancer of the breast, prostate and colon
• The tendency toward obesity is fostered by our environment: lack of physical activity combined with high-calorie, low-cost foods.

About the Surgeons
Our bariatric surgeons at Sanoviv have been practicing surgery between 10 to 28 years each. Most began doing the lap band surgery five to seven years ago and have completed over 900 successful surgeries each. They all consider this to be one of the safest bariatric procedures, minimally invasive and a much lower risk than gastric bypass surgery.

One doctor explains, "Lap band surgery is done laparoscopically – through small incisions made in the belly button. 75% of gastric bypass surgery on the other hand requires open surgery – a much more invasive procedure. The lap band is adjustable. It can be filled or unfilled to adjust the amount of food you are eating. It also takes only a maximum of 48 hours to recuperate."

"In comparison with gastric bypass surgery which can have a very high rate of mortality and morbidity, there have been no deaths from the lap band and complications are few and minor. The risk of death from gastric bypass is 1 in 200, plus the procedure can not be reversed. Unlike the lap band which is completely reversible, you have to be ready to live with gastric bypass for the rest of your life."

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