To the Editor:

I write with a clarification concerning Alberto Masliah’s article of Feb. 16, “Binge eaters crave freedom from food.” The article states that I “lost over 250 pounds as a result of a gastric bypass surgery.” While I have, indeed, lost 250 pounds over the past three years, I want to clarify that the first 100 pounds were lost through diet and daily exercise, with the advice and support of YUHS nutritionist Linda Bell. I underwent gastric bypass surgery in April of 2003, subsequently losing an additional 140 pounds. Finally, in August of 2004, I had extensive abdominoplasty to remove 10 pounds of excess skin. A “total” loss of 250 pounds, but not all of it resulting from gastric bypass surgery. I felt the correction necessary as I do not wish to convey that gastric bypass surgery is the only effective means for dealing with morbid obesity — it just happens to be the path I ultimately chose, as much to maintain the loss I had already achieved through nonsurgical means, as to continue losing weight.

Graham C. Boettcher ’95 GRD ’06

Feb. 17, 2005