Overweight individuals who are not considered obese according to previous Food and Drug Administration standards now qualify to be candidates for Lap Band Surgery as an effective weight loss technique thanks to the FDA’s recent lowering of weight requirements for Lap Band patients. In mid-February, the FDA relaxed its weight requirements for using Allergan’s Lap-Band stomach restriction device used in the popular weight loss surgery. The new ruling lowers the required body mass index, or BMI of the patient from 40 with no obesity-related health problems to 35, and to a BMI of 30 for those individuals with current health complications.

The FDA’s new ruling enables more than 26 million people struggling with weight issues in America to be able to consider having Lap Band Surgery, almost double the number of individuals that were previously eligible for this type of weight loss surgery. The advisory committee to the FDA in making its endorsement to widen the availability of the Lap-Band noted that the many benefits of the device were greater than the risks for patients who are on the fringe of obesity levels.

Under the old regulations, an obese man with a health condition such as diabetes, standing 5 feet 6 inches tall would have had to weigh at least 216 pounds in order to qualify for Lap-Band Surgery. Under the new FDA regulations, that same surgical candidate with the same medical condition could weigh as much as 30 pounds less, or 186 pounds, and still qualify to use Lap Band Surgery as his chosen weight loss method.

Allergan helped to win the new regulations by submitting a study which showed that Lap-Band Surgery patients lost an average of 18% of their body weight within a year of the surgery. Allergan has agreed to continue to follow these same patients in clinical studies for the next 5 years.

In recent years as diet drugs have gone out of favor and some have been pulled off the market for being dangerous, the Lap-Band, an inflatable silicone ring positioned on the stomach to help reduce food intake and make the patient feel fuller after consuming less calories, has increased in popularity for both its safety and effectiveness.

People living in affluent nations with “free-market” economies are more prone to become obese, according to a study made in Oxford University. Study showed money concerns and financial insecurity are the reasons why some countries have increased rates in obesity.

The study was made under the subject matter, Economic and Human Biology. It sought to compare obesity in 11 wealthy countries from year 1994 to 2004.

The researchers particularly wanted to find out why most of the people living in UK and US countries weigh more than the residents of Norway and Sweden.

Based on the results of the study, the researchers said that obesity had certain social causes. The Oxford researchers thought that stress might be a factor that could lead people to overeat. This concept is based on the research based on animal behavior that showed how animals increase their food consumption when faced with uncertainty.

Researchers used 96 national surveys to collect and analyze data on obesity levels. The survey was carried out in a number of different countries for over 10 years.

They included the “free-market” countries such as US, UK, Australia and Canada, and compared them against countries that offer better social protection and economic security such as Finland, France, Italy, Germany, Norway, Sweden and Spain.

The study found out that more open market countries appear to have high levels of obesity and higher rates of obesity growth. The results showed that there is more than one-third obesity on average seen on affluent countries.

Professor Avner Offer, the lead study author from Oxford University said that the economic benefits of flexible and open markets are counteracted by its negative effects to personal and public health, which in turn, are often neglected.