Celebrities with lap band

[Evilah 1]

Did you guys know that sharon osbourne got the lap band!?!?!?!? that's how she lost 125# in one year.

Anyone else know for sure of any celebrities who had lap band? I saw the bit about sharon's lap band on E! True Holywood story.. the osbournes.

Evilah

[susannah 2]

Hey, Shazza had her band removed recently. Susannah

[joe7777 1]

lots of celebs with RNY...didnt know bout sharon and the band...i dont know of any others either.

[jmarruda 22]

Another one with the band is Leila Ali's sister (Muhammed Ali's other daughter) I think she lost something in the way of 175lbs? after 2 years? Her book is coming out the end of June! Oh and don't forget about Star Jones. I don't know whether that was band or rny, but she definatly did something!!!

[kacee 3]

Sharon Osborne got her's in 1999 and is going to have her removed (if she hasn't already). Not sure why. I believe Rosanne Barr has a lap band.

[LLSibley 1]

Al Roper had some sort of wls.

[kacee 3]

Randy Jackson too, I think.

[MintyFresh 0]

Randy Jackson and Al Roper had RNYs I believe, and both of them gained the weight back.

[jmarruda 22]

did roseann barr have rny or band? i thought it was rny...

[tztmama 0]

Courtney Love had the band, I read the other day. Also the brunette of the band Heart had it. I think it is Ann Wilson. I heard she had the band removed though and has gained a bunch of weight back. Not sure about that though.

[Daisalana 33]

Randy Jackson had RNY.. and he is gaining it all back :confused:

I think there's another thread somewhere about Courtney Love(in off topic area), she didn't really have the band from the last of what I was reading. It was speculation I believe. I didn't know Roseanne had anything, but it must not be inspirational, last time I saw pictures of her she was still a big woman--with some plastic surgery. Carnie Wilson had the RNY and gained it back, and went on to do that celebrity fit club thing.. I think the Ann Wilson is what's throwing me off. I saw some Wilson singer had lap-band, I knew it wasn't Carnie, and I saw Carnie's E! Biography and knew her sisters were all bean poles, so I was confused about Ann.. so I guess that's a different band?

[babygrl1234 6]

Laura, AnnWilson was in the band Heart not Wilson Phillips which is probably what you are thinking of. Here is a link about her.

Ann Wilson - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[piercedqt78 658]

Al Roker had GBP

Randy Jackson has the Fobi Pouch

Ann Wilson HAD a lapband

Khaliah Ali (LAP-BAND®: Moment of Truth )

The ones that are suspected but not confirmed are:

Roseanne Barr, Courtney Love, Starr Jones

the list is endless. ~Mandy

[Isabella 4]

Courtney Love has a band.

[areellady 1]

I googled Fobi Pouch and came across this from WebMD..this first paragraph makes me wonder if Roseanne has this...

Aug. 11, 2000 -- For those fighting obesity, the "Fobi Pouch" sounds like the greatest thing since (low-cal) sliced bread. The comedienne Roseanne swears by it. Inquiring minds want to know ... what is it?

The technique, developed by California surgeon Mathias A.L. Fobi, MD, is a modification of a procedure that's been around for decades: stomach bypass surgery. The basic premise is that your stomach gets smaller, you eat less, and so you lose weight. Fobi says that his version of the procedure keeps patients from regaining the weight, a complaint that many have had about the traditional surgery. Some who have had that surgery gain as much as 25% of their weight back.

Critics say they're not sure Fobi's technique is any better than the traditional type of stomach bypass. But don't tell that to Georgia Sarantapoulos, one of Fobi's office assistants. She had the surgery in 1992, when she weighed 315 pounds.

"I was 22 years old. I had been obese all my life, but between 19 and 22, it just crept up on me," she tells WebMD. "I went from size 18 to 26. Doing simple things, tying shoes, making the bed, I had to stop and take a breath," she remembers. "My little sister loved to go to the mall, she always wanted to go, but I was always so embarrassed to see my image. ... There are all those mirrors. ...It was very, very depressing to me."

She tried diets like Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers, as well as diet shots and Water pills, even hypnotherapy: "I would lose maybe five or 10 pounds, no big deal." When she heard about the Fobi surgery on TV, Georgia was sure it was her answer. "I wanted the procedure, I wanted to take care of the problem," she says emphatically. "But my parents said, 'Oh, no, it's too drastic.' The family doctor was totally against it. I said, 'I don't care.'"

Indeed, any kind of stomach bypass surgery has risks, and it remains a controversial method of losing weight. But the Fobi procedure worked for Georgia. She lost more than 150 pounds, and today she's still at her new weight of 165 pounds -- give or take 10 pounds, depending on whether she's been exercising or not.

Says Fobi: "It's the best obesity operation that exists, and I'm not blowing my trumpet. I've been doing obesity surgery since 1977. The [stomach] bypass procedure is a very good procedure but it has some shortcomings. With the Fobi pouch, I have corrected those shortcomings."

Here are the details:

• In a traditional stomach bypass procedure, surgeons create a smaller stomach by stapling off a large section. The new stomach is called the "stomach pouch" because of its tiny size (about a heaping tablespoon), Fobi explains. When food is eaten, whatever doesn't fit into the pouch bypasses the upper part of the intestines, and thus cannot be absorbed into the body. Excess food goes straight through the gastrointestinal system and is eliminated.
  
• A problem with the traditional procedure is that the staples can break down, causing the stomach to regain its original shape -- and patients to start gaining weight again. Also, the stomach opening that leads into the intestines, which in surgery is made smaller to allow less food to pass through, often stretches as the years go by.
  
• With his technique, Fobi has eliminated the staples; he cuts the stomach into two parts, then hand-sews them to maintain the separation. He also adds a synthetic band around the stomach opening, to keep it from stretching.

Speaking hypothetically of the traditional surgery, Fobi says, "Mary Jones, who can eat only one-quarter hamburger after surgery, can eat a whole hamburger two years later. She's back to gaining weight. [With the Fobi procedure], two years later, Miss Jones can only eat as much as she did right after her surgery."

And the results? Fobi has tracked his patients' progress. In one published study of 516 patients, all except one had an average loss of 75% of their excess weight. Four years later, they showed "no tendency to regain weight." Six- and seven-year follow-up results show similar results, he says. That report is scheduled to be published soon, says Fobi.

With traditional bypass surgery, the rate of success -- defined as a loss of 50% of the patient's excess weight -- is 85% after two years.

Roseanne, who had the Fobi surgery two years ago and lost 78 pounds, has praised the procedure on her talk show. Her daughter had the Fobi Pouch operation two years ago, and Fobi tells WebMD that she's doing great, too. Even Roseanne's nanny, who had the surgery in 1992, has maintained her weight loss, Fobi says. "It's changed their lives," he says.

A few more details on the Fobi procedure:

• Total cost ranges from $15,000 to $40,000 (including hospitalization), depending on the area of the country.
  
• Recovery includes a four-day hospital stay, plus three to six weeks at home.
  
• Fobi has trained about 50 U.S. doctors to do the procedure, and their names are available through the American Society of Bariatric Surgery. "Ask for listings of surgeons performing the 'gastric bypass with the band,'" he advises. He has not yet received authorization to officially use his name in association with the procedure.
  
• As with other bypass surgeries, complications may include vomiting, nausea, Vitamin deficiencies, Protein deficiencies, and rapid weight loss, which can cause dizziness. While patients are counseled about Vitamins and other supplements they will need to take, "rarely is any treatment necessary," says Fobi. "Most patients learn to overcome these side effects, if no other cause is found." Support groups are available.
  
• Ideal candidates are people who are at least 75 pounds above their ideal weight. "When we first started out in 1977 [with traditional bypass surgery], we said that patients had to be 200% over ideal weight," Fobi says. "But as we realized more and more how safe the procedure was, we can now say that the best patients should weigh at least 75 pounds above ideal weight. You find that they are the ones who have a difficult time losing weight and keeping it off."
  
• Often, this is considered an elective procedure, so insurance will not cover it, says Fobi. "Most patients are paying out of pocket. They do have a medical reason, but insurance has not accepted it as a reason. To say 'I'm depressed and I cannot get a promotion because of my size,' nobody wants to buy that, but those are the true facts."

"Now I'm operating on professional people, lawyers, news reporters, policemen, who cannot function in their jobs because of their weight," Fobi says. "I just did a lawyer two weeks ago who said when she goes to court, everybody's busy looking at her, at 210 pounds, instead of listening to her brain. ... She's tried all the diets. She lost 60 pounds on fen-phen before it was taken off the market, then gained it all back. She's shown that she's tried to lose weight but can't. What do you want her to do?"

Fobi has his detractors, and he knows it. Colleagues say he is a respected surgeon, dedicated to helping his patients, but they question whether his technique is really an improvement on the traditional procedure. They also say that, across the U.S., there are about 15 different variations on the basic stomach bypass surgery.

"People say that the two procedures are the same, but my weight-maintenance figures speak for themselves," Fobi tells WebMD.

C. Daniel Smith, MD, tells WebMD that, based on good scientific data, the National Institutes of Health determined in 1992 that the traditional stomach bypass surgery was the best operation, in terms of weight-loss results. That's around the time Fobi began doing his procedure.

"I don't want to cast a shadow on the Fobi procedure, but in fairness to our patients, we need to know what's been proven and what hasn't," he says. Smith, chief of general and gastrointestinal surgery at Emory University School of Medicine, in Atlanta, says that he is not aware of any research showing that the Fobi method is better.

A more important development is laparoscopic stomach bypass surgery, Phil Schauer, MD, director of bariatric surgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, tells WebMD.

"It's a minimally invasive surgery performed with a very small incision. We've been doing the laparoscopic procedure for about five years," he says. "The results have been very dramatic. Instead of a week's hospital stay, it's just two days. Instead of two or three months off work, they are off work two to three weeks. Wound healing is minimal."

What's the word from Stanford? "I do 99% of my surgeries laparoscopically," Mark Vierra, MD, assistant professor of gastrointestinal surgery at Stanford School of Medicine, tells WebMD. "I think that's going to be a much more common procedure than Dr. Fobi's pouch."

For more information from WebMD, see our Diseases and Conditions page on Weight Control.

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