A New Non-Surgical Medical Procedure Can Make Weight Loss and Better Health Possible for Those Struggling with Excess Weight.

Manila, PHILIPPINES--April 1, 2004--Severely overweight patients who have never been able to keep pounds off with diet pills, exercise, or other weight loss programs now have a new medical option available that significantly reduces food intake.

The BioEnterics® Intra-gastric Balloon® Program (INAMED Health, Santa Barbara, CA) combines a team of medical experts and a scientifically proven method to reduce hunger to help you successfully lose weight. The key components of the program are: a team of weight loss experts, the intra-gastric balloon, and education and support. The team of experts provides consultation and designs a program to help reach weight-loss goals. The Intra-gastric balloon is a soft, expandable balloon that is inserted into the stomach and filled with saline. The balloon is intended to produce a feeling of satiety. During regular scheduled meetings patients are taught the principles of proper nutrition and exercise.

Through an endoscope, the BIB surgeon inserts the deflated balloon into the stomach. Once the balloon is in place it is inflated with 700 cc of sterile saline. The balloon fills up part of the stomach inducing a prolonged sense of satiety or lack of hunger. The procedure is simple, twenty minutes in an outpatient clinic.

The BIB remains in place for six months. During this six month period the patient undergoes extensive education and training with a medical team to learn new principles for healthy living. There are regular scheduled meetings during the six months where the patient will meet with a nutritionist and other medical experts as needed. After the BIB is removed the patient continues to receive medical and education support by the team.

To date, more than 40,000 people worldwide have participated in the BIB Program.

Obesity contributes to numerous health problems, such as high blood pressure, heart conditions, and type 2 Diabetes. Studies have shown that many of these conditions improve as patients lose their excess weight.

According to theWorld Health Organization more than 1 billion people worldwide are overweight, at least 300 million of them obese. An estimated 115 million of these people will develop serious medical conditions. Increases in obesity are associated with dramatic increases in conditions such as type 2 diabetes and asthma. In addition, a recent study reported that obesity causes more deleterious effects on health than either smoking or problem drinking. The increase in chronic health conditions caused by obesity is comparable to that seen in 20 years of aging.

B1B is a registered trademark of BioEnterics Corporation. 2002 INAMED Corporation. All rights reserved.

For more information about the BIB Program or LAP-BAND System please visit www.aemed.ph.

BioEnterics and Lap-Band are registered U.S. trademarks of BioEnterics Corporation
©2004 INAMED Corporation. All rights reserved.
In the Philippines, Lap-Band and BIB are exclusively distributed by Aemed.