LONDON: Latest research suggests that you should not forget to take your multivitamins after gastric bypass surgery for obesity.

The case of a woman who developed a vitamin deficiency disease because she did not take multivitamins after weight-loss surgery was taken up for study by Rachel Batterham and Alberic Fiennes, of University College London.

New research reveals how certain fatty foods help to regulate appetite. Writing in the journal Cell Metabolism, the Italian and American scientists explain how unsaturated fats, such as those found in olive oil, avocados and nuts, stimulate the production of a molecule that suppresses hunger pangs. The findings could lead to the development of new drugs to treat obesity and other eating disorders.

A groundbreaking procedure now allows obese individuals to remove 80 percent of their fatty mass with a minimally invasive procedure. There is one catch, however: the overweight individual must be a female.

The surgery, classified as a “natural orifice” technique, was developed by a team of UCSD scientists. The procedure marks the first successful sleeve gastrectomy ever conducted in the United States.

A vastly overweight Mexican man was pronounced dead on arrival at hospital after emergency workers were forced to demolish his bedroom wall to take him for treatment.

Jose Luis Garza, 47, weighed 992lb (450kg) and had been bedridden for four months. His condition deteriorated at the weekend as he struggled to breathe and eat, and he lost his battle for life as he was driven to hospital on the back of a friend's lorry

Mr Garza lived in Juarez in northern Mexico and was a friend of Manuel Uribe, the world's fattest man and a fellow Mexican who lived about one hour away in Monterrey.

Introduction Chile is a country of 16 million people of whom 88% live in an urban setting. Life expectancy is 78.3 years, gross national income per capita is US$ 4360 and 13.7% of the population lives below the national poverty line. Health conditions in Chile have changed strikingly in the past 50 years.

The importance of pre-operative screening for patients seeking body contouring after massive weight loss will be assessed in three studies presented at the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) Plastic Surgery 2008 conference, Oct. 31 – Nov. 5, in Chicago. These studies examine demographic factors that could affect complication rates; specifically, those who have not yet attained their goal body mass index (BMI); those who lost weight through diet and exercise and those who are male.

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Bariatric surgery not only helps patients lose weight, it also helps prevent breast cancer, said Dr. Elizabeth Martin, who will speak during the 2008 What Women Want Expo.

"Obesity is related to cancer," she said.

In addition to talking about the links between obesity and breast and other types of cancer, Martin will discuss bariatric, or weight loss, surgery, which includes gastric by-pass and LAP-BAND surgery. She'll discuss who is eligible for weight loss surgery and the outcomes people can expect.

She's lost hundreds of pounds only to gain them back.

Bray, 50, of North Fort Myers, weighs 331 pounds. She takes blood pressure and cholesterol medication. She's pre-diabetic and uses a sleep apnea machine.

"I don't want to spend the rest of my life like this," she said.

So Deanna made what some people might consider a drastic decision. She will have Lap-Band surgery, a 45-minute procedure that inserts a silicone band around the stomach to make it smaller. It will control her weight by reducing the amount of food her stomach can hold. It will also diminish her appetite.

More than 177,000 people in the U.S. received weight-loss surgery in 2006, and that number continues to grow.

Most undergo the Roux-en-Y gastric bypass, in which most of the stomach is bypassed and a small stomach pouch is made. Dr. Dan Smith, who did most of the Neal family’s surgeries at St. Joseph’s Center for Weight Management in Park Rapids, Minn., said the procedure is done so often because it works.

For arachnophobes, it's difficult to kill a spider as it scurries across the floor. Those who are scared to fly might not ever set foot on a plane. While nothing physically stops people with these aversions, a mental barrier can keep them from the task at hand.