Looking for Miracle Pills

The obesity epidemic is, to use an unfortunate phrase, as serious as a heart attack. It seems as if, no matter how well educated patients are about the health risks of the disease -- and no matter how much they directly experience the social costs of being perceived as obese -- losing very large amounts of weight simply by decreasing how much we eat and increasing our level of exercise simply doesn't work for very many people.

The bariatric surgery we perform at Dr. Feiz & Associates is, as far as we know, the only proven way around this. Even so, it's not hard to figure out why the appeal of seemingly magical cures that can take people to their ideal healthy weight never seems to go away.

A new study that appeared today suggests that probiotic pills, which offer some of the same helpful bacteria found in yogurt and are taken in supplement form by many people for digestive health, might have a positive impact on women seeking to lose weight. While the report, which indicated that women, but not men, taking the probiotics lose about 9.75 additional pounds on average while dieting, is fascinating, we're not sure what to make of it.

Of course, the danger is that women taking probiotics will start to think that they can eat more because the pills are doing the work of losing their weight and the use of probiotics will actually do more harm than good. It's just human nature. We're pretty sure that, as long as issues like obesity and ensuring type 2 diabetes remain a problem, people will be looking for a magic button to press that will magically remove all of their unwanted pounds.

Of course, there is no magic button, but weight loss surgery has been proven to produce outstanding results for countless women and men. If you are severely obese and seriously interested in getting off the destructive treadmill of obesity, please contact the office of Dr. Feiz & Associates at 310-855-8058.