MedPage Today (8/27, Fiore) reported a letter in The Lancet suggesting that “the data ‘mandate’ that clinicians warn patients having Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery that they could experience ‘a major difference in their capacity to handle alcohol after their surgery.'” The effect may be due to “alcohol-producing bacteria that accumulate in the bypassed duodenal-jejunal loop” that ferment carbohydrates. MedPage Today also explained that sugary foods eaten after the bypass can also be harmful to the patient, resulting on “dumping syndrome.” MedPage Today noted that while “most bariatric surgeons said they do warn patients that their tolerance for alcohol will change,” some “aren’t sufficiently educating patients.”
