Here’s something that I hope makes folks think twice before they go in for the surgery solution:

CNN: Obesity surgery riskier than expected

New research found a higher-than-expected risk of death in the year after surgery, even among young patients.

…

Some previous studies of people in their 30s to their 50s — the most common ages for obesity surgery — found death rates well under 1 percent.

But in a study of 16,155 Medicare patients who underwent obesity surgery, more than 5 percent of men and nearly 3 percent of women aged 35 to 44 were dead within a year. And slightly higher rates were found in patients 45 to 54.

Among patients 65 to 74, nearly 13 percent of men and about 6 percent of women died. In patients 75 and older, half of the men and 40 percent of the women died.

My sister-in-law’s sister went in for gastric bypass in early August; she’s expected to get out of the hospital this week. Yikes. Go in for a few-day procedure, and wake up and have weeks gone by. Yet she’s really lucky. She almost died.

Now here’s one of those cause or effect kind of stories:

WebMD: Sleep Your Way to Weight Loss?

Getting a good night’s rest could help you lose weight.

Eight hours of sleep per night might be ideal, researchers report.

They studied 323 men and 417 women in Canada’s Quebec province. Those who reported sleeping seven to eight hours per night were leaner than those who noted five or six hours of nightly sleep.

My big problem is I’m lucky to get three good hours in a row. Whether it’s my fibroids or my weight or my age, getting up once or twice a night to do the loo is the rule, not the exception :(.