Don’t let this weight loss technique make you blind

More than 200,000 Americans a year use an effective weight-loss procedure that can help take off pounds. But without proper precautions, it may lead to blindness.

The procedure, bariatric surgery, restricts how much food can enter the digestive tract. The surgery is offered in three varieties: One uses stomach bands or sleeves to reduce stomach size, another bypasses part of the digestive system so fewer calories are absorbed, and a third method combines aspects of the other two procedures.

These operations, however, can result in significant nutrient deficiencies. After surgery, people may vomit frequently, eat much less food or be subject to food intolerances. That can lead to an unbalanced diet and deficiencies of certain vitamins and other micronutrients.

Consequently, if you have bariatric surgery and you don’t take the proper dietary supplements, you may run seriously short of vitamin A and the B vitamins. That can lead to dry eyes, night blindness, corneal ulcers and in very serious cases, total blindness, according to research at the Centro Hospitalar de Lisboa Central in Portugal.

“There is a risk that bariatric surgery patients, who do not take the vitamin and mineral supplements prescribed to them, could develop eye-related complications because of nutrient deficiencies,” says researcher Azevedo Guerreiro. “Such complications after bariatric surgery are not frequent, but if undetected, they can have devastating consequences for the patients.”

Because only a few studies have explored the nutrient problems experienced by people who have had bariatric surgery, the researchers are worried that doctors are not sufficiently concerned with these issues.

“The real prevalence of these complications is unknown but the rarity of clinical reports that link nutrient deficiency with eye-related complications could also mean that no one is looking for such problems,” adds researcher Rui Ribeiro.

Carl Lowe

By Carl Lowe

has written about health, fitness and nutrition for a wide range of publications including Prevention Magazine, Self Magazine and Time-Life Books. The author of more than a dozen books, he has been gluten-free since 2007.

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