Painfully Thin
More than one-third of U.S. adults are obese, and 207,000 of them had bariatric surgery last year to reduce the size of their stomachs, a 100% increase since 1999. For people who are 100 pounds or more overweight, stomach stapling, gastric banding, or stomach bypass operations can be life-altering, and seemingly well worth the $30,000 average cost. But the risk of complications is high, many patients regain the weight, and one study estimates that it can take five to 10 years to recoup the costs through savings on drugs and other interventions.
