Gastric band and alcohol – is that possible? | Gastric band

Gastric band and alcohol – is that possible?

Patients who wear a gastric band should avoid alcohol if possible. The purpose of the gastric band is to help reduce food and calorie intake so that the patient can lose weight. Alcoholic beverages are extremely high in calories and can be ingested almost unhindered despite the gastric band.

Therefore the desired effect of the gastric band is counteracted by the consumption of alcohol. Patients lose weight less or not at all. However, the influence of alcohol on the body of gastric band wearers is no more harmful than for healthy people. In moderation and not too often, alcohol can therefore be consumed with gastric banding.

Gastric band and pregnancy – is that possible?

Pregnancy is in principle also possible for women who have a gastric band. There is no recommendation to remove this band if pregnancy is desired. However, many doctors do advise to unblock the band during pregnancy. There are no scientific studies that allow a clear recommendation. However, there are many women who have had a normal pregnancy without complications or limitations despite having a gastric band.

What are the alternatives to the gastric band?

In order to achieve weight loss, the focus should always be on reducing the calorie intake with the diet on the one hand and on increasing the calorie consumption through sufficient physical activity on the other.If these measures do not lead to success even with professional support and other conservative measures such as diets have been exhausted, a drastic measure from the field of bariatric surgery may be considered. This is a generic term for surgical interventions that serve to reduce body weight and combat extreme obesity. The insertion of a gastric band is only one of several possible alternatives.

One possibility is to perform a gastric reduction by surgically removing part of the stomach. This will reduce the amount of food in the stomach, so that a faster feeling of fullness will limit food intake. A frequently used example is the creation of a tube stomach.

A gastric bypass, on the other hand, is a surgically created bypass of a large part of the stomach. Here, too, the aim is to reduce the capacity by surgically reducing the size of the stomach. The insertion of a silicone gastric balloon, on the other hand, does not require an operation but only a gastroscopy.

The balloon, which is inserted into the stomach cavity, is filled and its displacement creates a faster feeling of fullness. Another alternative to the gastric band pursues a completely different approach to the goal of reducing body weight: a so-called gastric pacemaker can use electrical impulses to cause delayed emptying of the stomach into the intestine, so that the patient is full for longer. Whether this method achieves results as good or even better than those mentioned above has not yet been conclusively determined by tests. The basic prerequisite for all the alternatives mentioned is that the patient is motivated to accept the procedure as a support for the goal of long-term body weight reduction.