Caution: I am in no way recommending ANYONE, no matter how much weight you’re struggling with to fly across the country and get this procedure done.

I know that being overweight/obese, is major issue not only in the Black community but across the nation. First Lady Michelle Obama has addressed it, documentaries have been produced to bring awareness to it, The Biggest Loser TV show inspires overweight people every season to sign up next (although some never get off the couch to do so) and school lunches have been altered to ensure that they include more healthy choices for kids.

Extreme weight loss regimes are nothing new. People want to lose the weight and they want to lose it fast but don’t want to put in the work or carry it out the proper way. Americans have been spoiled with this “microwave mentality”. Anyway, anyone who has ever had a weight issue knows how much of a challenge it can be and how frustrating it can make a person when they are not getting the results they want.

For those of you who have tried juicing, the no carbs diet, no bread, “Jenny Craig” , “Nutri-System” or some other diet and workout plan that you’ve invented yourself but have yet to see results, here is the latest news in weight loss procedures: The Tongue Patch. according to Yahoo! Shine, the tongue patch surgery is being done at a Beverley Hills, California clinic and can cause patients to lose as much as 30 pounds in a month by well, starving to death. “Patients are having postage-stamp size pieces of rough plastic sewn onto their tongues, making it impossible for them to eat”.

According to Shine, Dr. Nikolas Chugay’s California clinic, is the only place in the U.S.that provides this surgery AND it has NOT been approved by the FDA (but people don’t care about that as long as those pounds keep dropping). Basically, the patch makes eating so painful that patients literally cannot eat solid foods and are forced to only intake a liquid diet in order to survive. You know when you burn the roof of your mouth as you’re biting into that hot sandwich at lunch or bite your tongue shoveling food into your mouth too quickly and it may be sore for a day? It hurts a little but you’re still eating but with this foreign object sewn onto your tongue for a month, food isn’t getting anywhere your mouth. Oh yeah, not to mention it’s pretty dangerous too.

Here’s what Dr. Chugay had to say about the risks of his surgery. As reported by Yahoo! Shine:

He may call it minimally invasive, but the plastic patch is still plenty risky. On his website, Dr. Chugay warns that patients may experience tongue swelling for one to two days after the operation, and that “speech may be affected during this time.” The patch is made of marlex, a material usually used during hernia repair, and must be removed after a month otherwise the tongue starts to grow around and into it.

I wouldn’t tell anyone to try anything that isn’t all the way legit (official  papers), especially when it comes to medical procedures. This is an extreme form of dieting that will probably end up being more detrimental to the person’s body even if they do end up losing the weight. For those of you that don’t know, when the body is starved or malnourished, it turns on itself and starts feeding off of it’s insides. Being on a strictly juice diet for a month will get rid of access weight but you’ll rid yourself of other nutrients the body needs that come from solid foods such as protein from meats. There’s nothing wrong with dieting but if you must diet, make sure it’s at least FDA approved and that you are also exercising and eating healthier choices and portions of food to ensure that you lose the weight properly without sacrificing everything else your body needs.

Is this worth it? Is this the last resort for weight loss?

Dr. O

Picture source: http://calorielab.com/news/2009/09/28/tongue-patch-the-hurts-too-much-to-eat-weight-loss-program/