Is lap banding the cure to obesity?

Obesity is killing Americans at an alarming rate and conventional dieting doesn't always work. In the last few years, "lap banding" has increased in popularity. Today is the first time lap banding has been done in Spokane.

Over 60 percent of people in the US are considered obese and the perception is unhealthy eating is the culprit. But for many - overeating is not the problem - it's genetics.

"Society would have us believing that all obese patients are lazy, dirty, eat a lot, don't exercise - that is absolutely not the case," says Dr. Lee Trotter, the first bariatric surgeon performing lap banding surgery in Spokane.

Dr. Lee Trotter is new to Spokane, but not new to the problem of obesity. As a bariatric surgeon - he's performed weight loss surgeries like gastric bypass and lap banding, which was approved by the FDA in 2001.

Looking in the brain for a clue to obesity

Obese people lose their ability to respond to a hormone that says "stop eating." A new study by Oregon researchers may explain how this happens and raises hopes that drugs could work around this communication breakdown.

The study identified what could be the broken link in a chain of biological signals connected to the hunger-limiting hormone leptin. An excess of a protein called SOCS-3 seems to drown out the messages leptin is sending like a noisy debater. Drugs that tap into this hunger-control system down the line from the disruptive protein may get the "lose weight" message moving again. Several companies are working on drugs that alter this hormone system, the melanocortin system.

This does not mean a super slimming drug is just around the corner. The drugs being developed could fail their tests and are years from the market at best.