Alcohol after Bariatric Surgery
Jun 11, 2010
Alcohol after Bariatric Surgery
Copyright (c) 2010 Ready 4 a Change
Patients are often discouraged from consuming alcohol for
up to a year following bariatric surgery for several
reasons. Not only is alcohol a source of empty calories,
increasing your overall calorie intake, thereby
jeopardizing your ultimate weight loss goals, but it also
decreases the absorption of many vitamins and minerals,
contributing to deficiency syndromes. Alcohol consumption
increases the risk of gastric ulcers, making you more
susceptible to acid reflux.
Recently, researchers have reported that bariatric surgery
alters alcohol metabolism thereby increasing alcohol
sensitivity. This is because the factors that affect it
including body weight, liver function, food intake, and
transit time in the stomach, are all altered by the
surgical procedure.
The mechanism of this is really very simple:. As bariatric
surgery reduces the size of the stomach and reduces its
transit time, there is decreased alcohol breakdown by the
enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase. The absorption by the
intestine therefore is higher and more rapid, which
effectively translates into higher blood levels of alcohol.
Studies have shown that blood alcohol levels of gastric
bypass patients were 50% higher than in subjects who had
not undergone surgery.
Researchers found that the patients who had undergone
bariatric surgery had a higher peak breath alcohol level
(0.08 %) as compared to the control group (0.05%), and that
the former group took almost 40 minutes longer to
completely metabolize the alcohol (time to zero being 108
versus 72 minutes). Also, they reported that the age and
weight adjusted breath alcohol curves showed significantly
higher levels at each time point for the gastric bypass
patients on serial analysis after drinking 5 ounces of red
wine over a 15 minute period.
This implies that you need less alcohol to become
intoxicated. In fact, even one glass of wine at dinner can
mean that your blood alcohol level is over the legal limit,
and can have serious implications as far as your ability to
concentrate is concerned. Experts are of the view that even
one glass of wine may be too much for post bariatric
surgery patients, with two being the outer limit.
Psychologists also describe a disorder termed as addiction
transfer. A patient, following treatment for substance
abuse, swaps one compulsive behavior addiction for another.
Statistics from substance abuse centers show that patients
who stop overeating often acquire new compulsive disorders
such as alcoholism and gambling.
Researchers have brought to light preliminary data
suggesting that as many as 20 to 30 percent of bariatric
surgery patients struggle with new addictions. There is
however no conclusive data as alcoholism can be detected
several years after the surgery. In such cases, the
patients are no longer under the regular follow up by their
weight loss team , and more often than not patients also do
not attribute their alcohol addiction to their surgery,
thereby failing to mention it to their counselors.
Off course, there are chances that the addiction maybe
purely coincidental. It is however advisable to err on the
side of caution as far as alcohol after bariatric surgery
is concerned.
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Alma Orozco is a certified patient coordinator of the
Ready4Achange team for http://www.ready4achange.com .
Monterrey is rated as the safest city in Latin America and
the medical facilities out there are certified by US
hospitals. The low cost of living makes surgery very
affordable in Mexico. You can check out
http://ready4achange.com/gastric-sleeve-surgery-mexico
done by Dr Zapata at CIMA Monterrey by clicking on the link.
