This is the Weight and Healthcare newsletter! If you like what you are reading, please consider subscribing and/or sharing! Recently I received an email from a reader asking - since I believe that weight loss surgeries fail to meet the requirements of an ethical, evidence-based intervention, do I think that magnetic jaw-locking devices are a better option? The reader had been told (misled) that these devices have “no negative side effects,”
Thank you so much for writing this article! I ended up googling around a lot after asking you, and found out that this method is allegedly primarily used for people who're about to undergo surgery, but are over the stated safety limits, or who can't fit in a given machine for accurate imaging (such as an MRI). When I first heard about this taking place in Australia and the UK, I thought it was offered as a less invasive alternative for bariatric surgery, which I would never personally volunteer to undergo. The only positives I can find about these jaw magnets is that it enables some larger people get access to healthcare that they would otherwise be unable to get, and that these jaw magnets don't involve the brutal process of wiring your mouth shut with metallic wires as has been literally done and documented for over a thousand years.
Thank you so much for writing this article! I ended up googling around a lot after asking you, and found out that this method is allegedly primarily used for people who're about to undergo surgery, but are over the stated safety limits, or who can't fit in a given machine for accurate imaging (such as an MRI). When I first heard about this taking place in Australia and the UK, I thought it was offered as a less invasive alternative for bariatric surgery, which I would never personally volunteer to undergo. The only positives I can find about these jaw magnets is that it enables some larger people get access to healthcare that they would otherwise be unable to get, and that these jaw magnets don't involve the brutal process of wiring your mouth shut with metallic wires as has been literally done and documented for over a thousand years.