Decades ago, patients had their mouths literally wired shut. Then came the era of the balloon inserted and inflated in the stomach to mimic the sensation of fullness. Then we moved into radical surgery that rerouted the gut altogether. The most recent attempt to achieve weight loss is the lap band, considered less invasive and still far short of a fail-proof miracle cure for most people.
Never let it be said that companies are asleep at the wheel when it comes to creating new, and ever more bizarre, devices to “help” the morbidly obese.
Acquiring rapid approval from the Food and Drug Administration this week, the AspireAssist is being touted as the new solution for those who have failed to lose weight. After all, it is minimally-invasive, reversible; it’s a simple procedure that offers quick recovery; it has proven results in clinical trials and is affordable. How great is that?
Now, let’s talk about what is actually true. This is a pump that allows people to consume food, and then mere minutes later drain it from their stomachs straight into the toilet. Many experts are calling it a bulimia-assist device. And well they should. The individual gets the same result without having to engage in that pesky, far more dangerous act of vomiting.
The makers of the device also tout that another “real benefit” of it is that people get to engage in “a healthy, normal lifestyle.” It seems they have skipped over the part about having to go to the bathroom after every meal and dump out undigested food from the stomach directly into the toilet.
The evacuation takes from five to ten minutes, should be executed after every large meal, and can “easily” be accomplished in a public restroom.
There is nothing normal about this.
In a statement, the FDA cautions that the device should not be used by those with eating disorders. Now what does this organization in its infinite wisdom think that, at the very least, a sizeable minority of those with severe obesity are struggling with? Cancer?
Many of those whose weight would classify them as obese have a very real eating disorder – most will go undiagnosed and untreated. These are exactly the people who will go to great lengths to get such a device installed. A quick fix; it’s every addict’s dream, indeed, every American’s dream.
The only thing this company is doing right is advocating lifestyle counseling while using this product. Imagine what results we would see if we offered ongoing individual therapy, lifestyle counseling provided by nutrition and exercise specialists and lifelong supportive group therapy without the “purge device.”
What does it say about our country’s obsession with thinness and its widespread disdain for people of size that the FDA so rapidly approved this device, essentially a bulimia-assist product for the “treatment” of those classified as obese based on their BMI?
Our healthcare system is short-sighted, symptom-focused and very broken. When we start to understand people first and foremost as human beings and view their “symptoms” in that context, perhaps we will deliver care to people in ways that enhance their health (physical, mental, emotional, social and spiritual) sustainably. And, at a fraction of the cost that we are currently dumping down the toilet due to our broken system.
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SunCloud Health has helped countless patients understand and overcome their eating disorders, offering binge eating disorder treatment programs for adults and teen eating disorder treatment for adolescents.
