The most bizarre side effect from gastric bypass surgery is often kept hidden

Surgeons call it the “gold standard” for weight loss.

They claim that not only can gastric bypass surgery help you lose lots of weight, it can cure type 2 diabetes and heart disease, too!

But here’s something else this procedure can do to you. One surgeons aren’t telling their patients about.

It can turn you into an alcoholic.

A large study on this phenomenon, published in JAMA, discovered that becoming an alcoholic after having surgery to reduce your stomach size is a real problem.

And, it’s not just a temporary one, either. People are still fighting with their alcohol addiction even 10 years after having gastric bypass surgery!

Jackie Kim, for example, was able to lose 180 pounds after having the procedure.

At first she felt great, but then Kim started drinking wine. Lots of wine. First, she would only drink while eating out with friends. But it progressed to the point where she would down two bottles at a time… while home alone.

Then came DWI, blackouts, and hiding bottles from her husband.

Kim said she had a “lot of anger” with her surgeon for not telling her about the risk. That she would never have taken a single drink after her surgery if she knew this could happen.

But instead of warning patients’, it looks like experts are just doing lots of busy work trying to find out why.

And they’ve thrown lots of things on the table like “addiction transfer,” and altering your “dopamine response.” By that, they mean another way to “reward” yourself when you can no longer eat all you want. Others have said that those who now have smaller stomachs absorb alcohol much faster.

Such explanations, however, continue to be nothing more than unproven theories. But whatever the reasons, the fact remains that odd responses to gastric bypass have been reported for a long time now.

I first warned you seven years ago how this procedure could cause numerous neurological problems, such as vision loss, memory loss and cognitive decline. Another study had found it to be associated with peripheral neuropathy — a numb or burning sensation in the feet, legs, hands and arms.

So it certainly should come as no surprise that permanently changing the actual design of your stomach can affect you in more ways than just dropping pounds.

And those can include driving you to drink.

Sources:
“Alcoholism after gastric bypass: Is it I your mind or gut?” Steph Yin, January 9, 2015, Scienceline, scienceline.org