Dr Ahmed Badat is 62 years old, but says he now feels 25 years younger. Last year, he suffered from six chronic conditions, took 15 pills a day and couldn't walk 20 yards without feeling breathless. Now, he runs four miles a week – and he doesn't take a single pill. "It's the best thing since sliced bread," he beams. It's no wonder that thousands more people want what he's had.
The procedure that changed Dr Badat's life was a gastric bypass – one of several variations on surgery performed on 3,459 people last year, causing a rise in operations for obesity of 41 per cent in just one year. "We should aim for more ops," says Dr David Haslam, the clinical director of the National Obesity Forum.
Dr Badat says he has tried every diet ever invented. An operation on his back made exercise impossible, but it was when he was prescribed insulin injections for his diabetes that his weight really became uncontrollable. He had arthritis, hypertension, sleep apnoea and high cholesterol, but still stomach surgery was not something he considered.
As a GP, he had been shown the treatment when it was new, 10 years ago, and didn't fancy his chances as "the mortality rate was 30 per cent".
But his health continued to deteriorate, and when his diabetes took a turn for the worse he was referred to Charing Cross Hospital, part of Imperial College Healthcare Trust. There, surgeons convinced him to go ahead with the operation, although his family was frightened. It didn't help that two weeks beforehand, a TV documentary featured a woman who died after surgery. But, says Dr Badat: "I'm cold about these things, I accept it."
According to Nice guidelines, a patient is eligible for this surgery on the NHS if he or she has a body mass index of 40 and over, or 35 and over with any other significant disease. With all of his conditions, Dr Badat was a perfect candidate. After a consultation with a psychologist and two weeks of the toughest diet of his life (starting on Christmas Day), he was operated on. He woke up two and a half hours later with four tiny holes in his stomach, some pain and strict diet plan.
Five months later, Dr Badat has dropped from 145kg (23st) to 98kg (15st), and hopes to lose 15kg more. He has referred 15 of his patients for surgery – all of them diabetics. And he is evangelical. "My eyes miss the food," he accepts, but otherwise the only drawback is not having any clothes that fit. And Mrs Badat is also concerned. "She hopes I don't lose too much weight," he says. "She doesn't want me to look like Nigel Lawson."
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