Drunkenness Comes Faster After Gastric Surgery

Oprah show revelations sparked a study into the phenomenon.

By Amanda Gardner
HealthDay Reporter
Thursday, June 14, 2007; 12:00 AM

Copyright © 2007 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.

THURSDAY, June 14 (HealthDay News) -- Oprah Winfrey's influence may now reach into medical science: her show led researchers to confirm that gastric bypass causes people to get drunk faster.

The reason, scientists say, is that bypass surgery cuts the amount of alcohol metabolized by the stomach.

The weight-loss procedure also seems to extend the time people need to sober up, the team said.

The research has implications for the 150,000 Americans who have already undergone this procedure and the thousands more who may be considering it.

"At the end of the day, this is the only enduring and effective intervention for morbid obesity," stressed study senior author Dr. John Morton, director of bariatric surgery at Stanford Hospitals and Clinics. "We don't want to deny them, but we want to make sure they are fully prepared to meet these challenges after surgery."

"This might let folks know to be a little more careful if they have a drink," added Dr. Joaquin Rodriguez, assistant professor of surgery at Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine and chief of minimally invasive surgery at Scott & White Hospital in Temple. "They need just to be aware that the same amount of alcohol may affect them differently than someone who hasn't had a gastric bypass," said Rodriguez, who was not involved in the research.

Study lead author Judith Hagedorn, a medical student at Stanford University, is scheduled to present the data June 14 at the annual meeting of the American Society for Bariatric Surgery, in San Diego.

In October 2006, Winfrey aired a show called "Suddenly Skinny," which noted that gastric-bypass patients often felt they had faster alcohol absorption after the surgery. Also discussed was "addiction transfer," when a person swaps his or her food addiction for an alcohol addiction.

Winfrey and her producers are clearly up on current health trends: Obesity is one of the leading, if not the leading, public health crisis in the industrialized world. More than 60 percent of adult Americans are overweight, 23.9 percent are obese and 3 percent are extremely obese. Being overweight can lead to a slew of life-threatening problems, including diabetes, heart disease and even cancer.