Woman Undergoes Gastric Bypass Surgery to Get Pregnant
SANJAY GUPTA, HOST: Gastric bypass surgery. It's usually done to help people get thin. But this woman did it to get pregnant. The artificial heart turns one year old. The beat goes on, but it's not without controversy. And people are heading to an unlikely place to get pampered -- the dentist's chair. Those stories coming up as CNN turns its focus to YOUR HEALTH right now. Hello, everyone, I'm Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Your health, there's nothing more important. A large part of staying healthy is maintaining a healthy weight. We all know that obesity can lead to all sorts of health problems, like diabetes, like heart disease. But it can also be a factor in infertility. Elizabeth Cohen now introduces us to one woman who took an unusual approach and some might say even extreme approach to solve both of those problems.</s>ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): That big smile is because after five years of infertility...</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I remember my mom said to me one day well, maybe you're not supposed to be a mom, you're supposed to be an aunt.</s>COHEN: ... Tanya Dice Lovelace (ph) finally managed to have a baby.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And I was like mother, I can't believe that you said that. And I refuse to accept that. I believe in a heavenly father and so long as there is one, I will have a child. Can I have a kiss?</s>COHEN: Tanya (ph) didn't do in vitro or any of the other drugs we've all heard about. She did something new, something on the cutting edge. She had her stomach stapled. She went from 270 to 208 pounds. She got pregnant with Clarence on the first try and then about a year and a half later, Audia (ph) was born. (on camera): This is just mind blowing that having gastric bypass surgery could help you get pregnant.</s>DR. MICHAEL ROSLIN, LENOX HILL HOSPITAL, NEW YORK: Well, the whole thing is mind boggling.</s>COHEN (voice-over): Dr. Michael Roslin at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City did Tanya's (ph) surgery. He explains that obesity can cause serious hormonal imbalances in some women. Whacked out hormones can mean no pregnancy.</s>ROSLIN: Then as they lose weight, they become very, very fertile.</s>COHEN: So far, there have been no studies to prove gastric bypass works for infertility, just anecdotal evidence. Dr. Roslin says about a dozen of his previously infertile patients got pregnant after the surgery. This radical approach to infertility isn't for everyone. As a rule, surgeons won't do it unless you're at least 100 pounds overweight and have tried to lose weight in other, less drastic ways. And you have to be willing to change your eating habits forever. After the surgery, the stomach goes from this size to just this size, which means tiny meals for the rest of your life.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can I have a kiss?</s>COHEN: As obesity rates continue to skyrocket in the United States, more infertile women may look to stomach stapling as a solution, but doctors warn it's a drastic step and while it seems to work for some obese women, it won't work for everyone. Elizabeth Cohen, CNN, New York</s>GUPTA: Staying healthy without good eating habits is just about impossible. In fact, you're about to meet a woman who's been battling an eating disorder for decades. But strangely, the worst problems occur when she's asleep. Our Rea Blakey explains.</s>REA BLAKEY, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: So, you made some changes, huh? (voice-over): Nancy Jordan says she has been eating while she's asleep for more than 40 years.</s>NANCY JORDAN, SLEEP EATER: I can go through a loaf of bread at night, if I want to.</s>BLAKEY (on camera): And that's all while you're asleep?</s>JORDAN: Yes, dry bread.</s>BLAKEY (voice-over): The episodes happen seven or eight times a night, most every night, usually within an hour after she falls asleep. (on camera): Did you sleep-eat the last time you slept?</s>JORDAN: What, last night?</s>BLAKEY: Yes.</s>JORDAN: Yes.</s>BLAKEY: What did you have?</s>JORDAN: I don't know. I surmise the bread that was left here.</s>DR. DAVID NEUBAUER, ASSOC. DIRECTOR, JOHNS HOPKINS SLEEP CTR.: It's as if they are zombie-like.</s>BLAKEY (voice-over): Dr. David Neubauer is a psychiatrist at the Johns Hopkins sleep disorder center in Baltimore. He says sleep- related eating is a compulsive behavior that mainly affects women, often beginning during their late teens.</s>NEUBAUER: They are so driven for this behavior, a lot of times, they become rather belligerent, in a very uncharacteristic way, if somebody tries to stop them from getting to food.</s>BLAKEY: Nancy has tried stopping herself by putting obstacles between her bedroom and the kitchen, but nothing works. (on camera): Now, you told me, you even put a bicycle chain on your refrigerator and locked it to keep you from going in. But somehow you managed to go in.</s>JORDAN: That's why I got this one, because I did the same thing with that one. Now, I didn't do anything with this because I didn't think I was going to go to freezer food.</s>BLAKEY: But you have.</s>JORDAN: Yes. This is chicken breast. I had them the other night, cold, frozen.</s>NEUBAUER: What gets really problematic is when people decide that they need to cook something. And we've heard several episodes occurring where fires have started.</s>BLAKEY (voice-over): Sleep eaters sometimes try to devour nonfood items like cigarettes or soap. Nancy believes she has eaten some prescription medications while sleeping.</s>JORDAN: Some days, they are not there and I know I've taken extra.</s>BLAKEY: What causes it? Who knows. Some experts theorize disturbances like sleep apnea or restless legs syndrome may prompt an episode. Others blame stress.</s>JORDAN: Here's my Cardilupe (ph). That is the Parkinson's medicine.</s>BLAKEY: Which Nancy takes to help treat her sleep-eating. But the effect is limited.</s>JORDAN: The only way that I can cure it myself is just don't go to sleep.</s>BLAKEY: So Nancy never lays down for more than 15 minutes, a strategy that could be fueling her nightly fight with food.</s>NEUBAUER: Make sure that you are getting plenty of sleep, because, under circumstances of sleep deprivation, sometimes that makes it worse.</s>BLAKEY: Nancy Jordan says it would be hard for her sleep experience to be much worse. She is looking to find a cure. Rea Blakey, CNN, Wilmington, Delaware.</s>GUPTA: On to other health stories making headlines this week. Hormone replacement therapy. Can it really help the hearts of women? That's our first report as we check "The Pulse."</s>GUPTA (voice-over): A new study has found long-term hormone use does not reduce the risk of heart attack in post-menopausal women with already existing heart disease. In fact, in addition to increasing the risk for a heart attack during the first year, HRT may increase the risk of developing blood clots and gall bladder disease. The findings of the seven-year study cast even more doubt on long-held beliefs that hormone replacement therapy protects the heart by mimicking the effects of natural estrogen. The 14th International Conference on AIDS opens this week in Barcelona. Experts are painting a bleak picture for the course of the disease unless industrialized nations start spending more to help less developed countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. The United Nations released a report in advance of the conference saying tat the AIDS epidemic hasn't yet reached its peak. Twenty million have died since it was discovered in 1981, but the report predicts 70 million will die over the next 20 years. Most of the deaths will be in sub- Saharan Africa, where infection rates can top 35 percent of the population, and only 4 percent of those infected have access to the latest drugs. Tonsillectomy -- it's the most commonly performed major operation on children in the United States, and it should only be used in the most severe cases of throat infections. At least those are the results of a new study that showed that the modest benefits of a tonsillectomy, with or without adenoidectomy do not justify the inherent risk of surgery or the cost to young patients moderately affected by recurring throat infections. For more information on any of our stories this week, go to our Web site. That's at cnn.com/yourhealth.thepulse.</s>GUPTA: An now we have an update for you. Recently we brought you a story on nicowater. That's water with nicotine. Well, this past week the FDA nixed approval of it, calling it both "addictive" and "a drug." Coming up, a novel treatment for Alzheimer's disease that may give new meaning to the term "brain drain." But first, the artificial heart gives hope, but it also gives pause. A look at its record on the cusp of its first-year anniversary. All of that when CNN's YOUR HEALTH continues.