More People Using Surgery for Weight Loss

To each their own, but I am not usually a fan of instant success type programs, because if you do not address the underlying fundamentals surgery might not be a long term solution. With that being said, more and more people are using surgery to lose weight.

In the hospital trade, big people have become big business.

Orange Coast performed 467 weight-loss operations last year, up from 19 in 1997, the year it began with one surgeon. Since then, the hospital has added three surgeons to keep up with demand. Patients have flown in from as far away as Alaska, Japan and Germany for surgery.

Across the United States, stomach stapling and other weight-loss surgeries, with their promise of a trim physique, have grown nearly tenfold in a dozen years. More than 140,000 patients underwent the procedure in the United States last year - at an average cost of $25,000 - generating revenue of more than $3.5 billion.

$3.5 billion dollars is more revenue that Google made last year, and right now they are the 23^RD most valuable corporation in the United States.

Have you had weight loss surgery? Did it hurt? Did it change your life? Did it help you keep the weight off, or was it a temporary fix?