Despite the risks, the popularity of bariatric surgery is still growing. These procedures are typical of our quick-fix culture, and I've been against them for years.

Don't get me wrong: being eighty or a hundred pounds overweight is a serious health concern, but it's by no means a health issue that's correctable ONLY by surgery.

At one time, bariatric surgery was considered an extreme medical last resort, fit only for patients who were morbidly obese. These days, however, it seems as if people with fifty or eighty pounds to lose are going under the knife.

It doesn't help that doctors are willing to do it. And to make matters worse, those who stand to make fortunes doing these unnecessary surgeries compile statistics showing how "safe" it is.

At their annual meeting, the American Society of for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery unveiled their Bariatric Outcomes Longitudinal Database (or "BOLD" for short). This database is supposed to be the first concerted effort to collect patient information and outcomes in the wake of these procedures.

I think it's a bunch of hooey.

According to BOLD's statistics, bariatric surgery is no more dangerous than any other form of gastrointestinal procedure, showing that the overall risk of fatality within the first 90 days after the surgery is performed is a mere .122 percent.

First of all, I've seen other statistics showing the death rate to be much higher than that. But even if this number is accurate, that .112 percent isn't as insignificant as it looks. According to this percentage, 224 of the 200,000 patients will die within 90 days of having the surgery. And of course, that doesn't factor in the deaths that occur AFTER 90 days…

Not long ago I wrote to you about another study that claimed as many as FIVE PERCENT of bariatric surgery patients are dead within a year of having the operation. That's about 10,000 patients a year, based on the 200,000 figure.

In spite of ASMBS's claims that gastric bypass surgeries are becoming safer all the time, I still say their BOLD system's statistics aren't telling the whole story.

Bariatric surgeries are dangerous, and should not be viewed as a quick-fix substitute for a healthy lifestyle.