OMG! Home food pump for obesity, medically assisted bulemia?

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  • SanteMulberry
    SanteMulberry Posts: 3,202 Member
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    I can't imagine why anyone would go for this. Solving the food addiction problem is the more pressing need there. It is likely only slightly less dangerous than being bulemic.
  • Lupercalia
    Lupercalia Posts: 1,857 Member
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    This is a step so far backwards not only in nutrition and health, but also in terms of eating disorders and mental illness. It is the most appalling human invention I have seen.

    I agree--I find it strange and dehumanising as well.
  • IronSmasher
    IronSmasher Posts: 3,908 Member
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    Don't gastric bands make you sick if you eat too much?
  • AJinBirmingham
    AJinBirmingham Posts: 497
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    I'll be honest - if medicine came up with a quick and easy way to "uneat" food, I'd be on board.

    I'd love the option of going to the cinema, packing on some popcorn and a whole bag of Twizzlers and then just undoing the damage.

    I wouldn't consider this particular invention because it's too invasive and pretty gross. I can't imagine having a reverse eating tube implant NOT slowing me down and limiting all sorts of activities, but I'm not at all disgusted by the idea of being able to overeat and then undo it.
  • WVprankster
    WVprankster Posts: 430 Member
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    Nevermind buying food- now they're just renting it.


    But seriously- the fact that this is an actual practice is disturbing, I think mostly because it's clearly billed as an easy way out, when in fact it's a macabre way to nowhere.
  • CarmenSRT
    CarmenSRT Posts: 843 Member
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    This is right up there with gastric bypass and lap band.

    It's worse. This device enables a bulimic person to be bulimic more efficiently, along with helping to legitimize the behavior because a doctor created it.
    My binge eater brain component (which is under pretty damn good control compared to my past) woke up and said "Hey, that might work!" for a minute when I read this - and I've never purged. Then common sense kicked back in. I cannot imagine what this would do to a bulimic's brain. :frown:
  • fbmandy55
    fbmandy55 Posts: 5,263 Member
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    I was totally disgusted by it. I am surprised any medical professional would recommend or do this.

    And yet people believe dr Oz and the docs who run HCG weightoss clinics know what they are doing because they have an M.D. behind their name... This is a perfect example that some doctors are in it to take people's money, not make them healthy. Overweight, insecure people are the easiest targets.
  • nexangelus
    nexangelus Posts: 2,080 Member
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    I cannot imagine what this would do to a bulimic's brain. :frown:

    If you are bulimic, you are already using any and all means of purging anyway (which is what this enables, without the stomach acid and even bile damaging the teeth, the mouth and throat linings) This is bizarre, but just shows what type of easy fix world we live in....not good...
  • OneDimSim
    OneDimSim Posts: 188 Member
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    That is absolutely horrendous. Bypassing the obvious bewilderment with the concept, it wouldn't teach discipline, or force the user to research and learn about nutrition to better themselves. Always trying to take the easy route... disappointing.

    ^^ This, I was going to say the same thing.

    Great minds think alike!

    if you think anything about being morbidly obese is easy or there is an easy way out, you are dead wrong. Once you are above say 50 BMI - there is no EASY WAY OUT. It is a complex issue that involves the affected bodily and mentally.

    A device like this is invented b/c the doctor/medical establishment sees someone whose life is in DANGER from their weight and who cannot seem help themselves.

    On the device: it is sad we throw medical answers at a problem that is both mental and physical. It is sad people are killing themselves by eating. It is sad there is a need for such intervention. It is complex. There is nothing easy here.

    If you DO NOT specialize in bariatric medicine nor have you ever been in a Super Morbidly Obese category, please keep your judgements to yourself. Walk a mile people......
  • nexangelus
    nexangelus Posts: 2,080 Member
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    If you DO NOT specialize in bariatric medicine nor have you ever been in a Super Morbidly Obese category, please keep your judgements to yourself. Walk a mile people......

    No.

    I have been bulimic and anorexic and overeaten until I am sick. I have even purged water, as I was scared that it would put weight on (very, very sick mind). I have been at my lowest weight 91 lbs and at my highest 189 lbs and several weights in between. I would not wish an eating disorder or eating disordered thinking and its many and varied, very twisted coping mechanisms (one of which is purging) on anyone. This is not good and we do not have to have medical qualifications to say so, thank you very much!
  • bcattoes
    bcattoes Posts: 17,299 Member
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    If you DO NOT specialize in bariatric medicine nor have you ever been in a Super Morbidly Obese category, please keep your judgements to yourself. Walk a mile people......

    No.

    I have been bulimic and anorexic and overeaten until I am sick. I have even purged water, as I was scared that it would put weight on (very, very sick mind). I have been at my lowest weight 91 lbs and at my highest 189 lbs and several weights in between. I would not wish an eating disorder or eating disordered thinking and its many and varied, very twisted coping mechanisms (one of which is purging) on anyone. This is not good and we do not have to have medical qualifications to say so, thank you very much!

    You are correct. You do not need medical qualifications to say if something is "good", since "good" is merely opinion.

    But an uneducated or close-minded opinion is pretty worthless when discussing whether this can be a valuable tool in medically treating obesity.
  • hockey7fan
    hockey7fan Posts: 281 Member
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    Yes, the gastric bypass and the lap-band do make you regurgitate if you eat too much. But that's something that you are counseled to avoid doing. You can damage your band or stomach doing it too often.
  • nexangelus
    nexangelus Posts: 2,080 Member
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    But an uneducated or close-minded opinion is pretty worthless when discussing whether this can be a valuable tool in medically treating obesity.

    No, it is neither close-minded nor uneducated. Did you read my post? The word good was meant to simplify a whole heap of reasons, psychologically and physically why this is absolutely insane, as are a host of other medically approved treatments.
  • bcattoes
    bcattoes Posts: 17,299 Member
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    But an uneducated or close-minded opinion is pretty worthless when discussing whether this can be a valuable tool in medically treating obesity.

    No, it is neither close-minded nor uneducated. Did you read my post? The word good was meant to simplify a whole host of reasons, psychologically and physically why this is absolutely insane, as are a host of other medically approved treatments.

    And what makes them better than this?
  • ShellyBell999
    ShellyBell999 Posts: 1,482 Member
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    Oh My!!
    :noway:
    No!
  • tekwriter
    tekwriter Posts: 923 Member
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    I honestly don't understand what they are thinking here. At least with bariatric you get nutritional counseling. This sounds like a device to enable bad eating and over eating and allow the person to lose weight at the same time. There is no proof of long term effectiveness. Haven't we already enabled ourselves to a super morbidly obese state by thinking we can eat what we want? When do we learn how to eat if we get to dump it out. It sounds disgusting.
  • Mini_Medic
    Mini_Medic Posts: 343 Member
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    How is this any different from the extreme opposite of anorexics being hospitalized as in patients when they get to a low body weight and the doctor places a feeding tube (nose/mouth/direct stomach) so that they can keep the anorexic alive?

    Placing the same tube to withdraw food could potentially save the obese persons life?

    I'm not agreeing with the practice, as a paramedic I think people need to learn to take care of themselves and their own health properly without a cheat method.

    However, if this was a last resort to save someone, then use it, but don't hand it out to people so they have an excuse to binge and eat bad foods without consequences.

    This is almost as rediculous as the medication that blocks fat absorption so you eliminate most of the fat via the restroom, or using worms and parasites to take your food from your body so you can't absorb it.

    As a life saving procedure in hospital, fine. As a cop out method to continue a unhealthy habit without repercussions, no.
  • bcattoes
    bcattoes Posts: 17,299 Member
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    I honestly don't understand what they are thinking here. At least with bariatric you get nutritional counseling. This sounds like a device to enable bad eating and over eating and allow the person to lose weight at the same time. There is no proof of long term effectiveness. Haven't we already enabled ourselves to a super morbidly obese state by thinking we can eat what we want? When do we learn how to eat if we get to dump it out. It sounds disgusting.

    I get what you are saying, but why do you assume a doctor would install this without nutritional counseling and medical follow-up anymore than they would do bariatric surgery without it? Why is not allowing your stomach to accept more than a tiny portion of food any more or less educational on how to eat normally than pumping food out your stomach when you binge? Both are extreme methods for extreme circumstances.
  • SanteMulberry
    SanteMulberry Posts: 3,202 Member
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    Question: How could they ensure that the person who had such a device was getting enough nourishment to avoid doing serious damage to his/her body? Answer: They can't. That's the main problem that I see with it (other than the seriously gross aspects). Also, it does nothing to deal with the central problem of the eating disorder.

    I can see other problems as well. I have a friend who was bulimic as a teenager. Her family lived in the country, in a farming area, and had a septic tank. She was throwing up a LOT of food and it overwhelmed their septic tank (undigested food floats around) and it washed over into the leach field (for those of you who have septic tanks, you will know what I'm talking about). The upshot was that their leach field was overrun with RATS digging it up to get at the undigested food! It also had a foul odor. Her parents called a septic tank installer to get him to fix the problem (not knowing about their daughter's bulimia). The septic tank guy said that he had never seen such a thing before--and asked if they had a garbage disposal and did they put a lot of waste food in there (garbage disposals are frowned-upon where people are on septic tanks). They said no but then their other daughter came forward and told the parents about her sister's problem. It was a very expensive repair---they had to have a new leach field installed.:frown:
  • bcattoes
    bcattoes Posts: 17,299 Member
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    Question: How could they ensure that the person who had such a device was getting enough nourishment to avoid doing serious damage to his/her body? Answer: They can't. That's the main problem that I see with it (other than the seriously gross aspects). Also, it does nothing to deal with the central problem of the eating disorder.

    How can "they" ensure that a person with bariatric surgery is getting enough nourishment? Or someone on a very low calorie diet? Or someone on any diet, for that matter. Regular medical tests.

    Many obese people have already done damage to their body.

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