FOR years, the diet industry has led us to believe that having a stomach feeling like a balloon is a bad thing. But the proponents of a new weight loss procedure would disag ree. A process known as the intra-gastric balloon programme is being pioneered by the Lincoln- based Gateway Health clinic as the weight loss alternative for those who have tried every diet without success but who would never consider going under the knife.

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Published Date: 24 January 2008
Location: Sheffield
By Kate Lahive

Health writer

How gastric ballon helped me to lose weight

Clare Beech

By Kate Lahive

Health writer

EVERY morning Clare Beech tucks into fruit and yoghurt for breakfast.
It's a healthy start to the day which leaves her with a satisfied feeling that keeps hunger at bay for much of the morning.

But the 40-year-old, who has shed over two stone since September, has an unusual ally in her battle against the bulge - a saline-filled balloon inserted into her stomach.

The balloon partly fills her stomach and creates a feeling of fullness which helps her to shed the pounds. It is intended as a 'kickstart' to long-term weight loss.

Clare, a mother of two, has waged a long battle on her weight and was beginning to despair of ever getting it under control.
Since her wedding in 1995, when she weighed a svelte nine-and-a-half stone, she gradually piled on the pounds and was shocked to find last year that she tipped the scales at 14-and-a-half stone

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Published Date: 24 January 2008
Location: Sheffield
By Kate Lahive

Health writer

People must change lifestyles

"People who have the surgery have been big for years, maybe since being a teenager or since having a baby," says Roger Ackroyd, a consultant surgeon who carries out the procedures at the Claremont Hospital in Sandygate, Sheffield.

Non-surgical intragastric balloons can be used in two ways - to help overweight people to slim, but also to help obese people lose weight so it is safe for them to undergo anaesthetic and surgery.

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Published Date: 18 January 2008
Location: Grimsby

BALLOON LIFTS MAN OUT OF DOLDRUMS

"NORMAL again!"

That's what a grandfather, whose life was transformed after he lost five stone with the help of a gastric balloon, said.

As hard as he tried, Paul Hurton (50) could not shed any weight and, at 17 stone, he suffered with type two diabetes, unstable angina and had already had two heart attacks.

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How gastric ballon helped me to lose weight

People must change lifestyles

BALLOON LIFTS MAN OUT OF DOLDRUMS