It would be easy to moralize; to say that people should abandon thoughts of face lifts, tummy tucks, tanning booths, body enhancements and obesity surgery and learn to accept themselves as they are; that beauty is internal, not external. But Americans — more than others — seem determined to reshape their appearance. The search for a fountain of youth has become a billion-dollar industry. It was Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges who said all things "cosmetic" are arrogant. "The word comes from 'cosmos,' " he said. "People think they can change the cosmos with makeup."
But Borges is now gone, and the "personal appearance" industry is alive and well.
The problem, as an Associated Press story points out, is sometimes those who go under the knife are unaware of the true risks. According to a new Medicare study, people who opt for obesity surgery die more readily than formerly believed. Previous studies set the death rate at 1 percent for those between 30 and 50 years of age, but new figures raise that number to 5 percent for men and 3 percent for women. In other words, for every 20 people who have obesity surgery, one will be gone within the year. For older men and women, those figures double. Deadly complications come from malnutrition, infection, gallbladder problems and other ailments.
To put that number in perspective, figures from LiveScience Magazine show that a person has a greater chance of dying from obesity surgery than dying from a stroke. The chances of dying from obesity surgery are greater than dying by accident, fire, suicide, falling down or the flu.
Still, the Journal of the American Medical Association says nobody should be denied obesity surgery based on the findings.
And we agree. In a "risk and reward" world, people have a right to take chances to make themselves feel better. We only urge prospective patients to make sure that the rewards they seek are worth the risk of death. And we urge the medical profession to take those risks seriously. True, people in the study were Medicare patients. Many of them already had health issues. But researchers stand by the numbers as "real world" tested.
Obesity surgery may indeed change your life and make you look good.
On the other hand, it has been known to put people in a casket, where passing mourners muse about how good everyone looks.