Obesity is one of the nation’s fastest-growing and most troubling health problems. Obesity not only brings dramatic impact to your physical and social life, but there are also severe consequences on your emotional well-being. And if you are suffering from obesity, you know this all too well… It is not secret that obesity is detrimental to your health.
You’ve heard it all. Lose weight. Eat less. Exercise more. Correct bad habits. Diet pills. And the list goes on… You’ve probably tried most of the recommended diets. Multiple exercise programs. Possibly even different types of therapy or counseling. And some weight comes off, but it either comes right back or it comes off too slowly to see healthy improvement. Feeling like you’ve failed is tough—discouraging and even depressing. If you have tried for years to lose weight, but have had no success—it might be time to consider other options. This is not just your health we’re talking about, but your LIFE. And there might be a way you can live the life you’ve been dreaming of.
Weight loss surgery. To some, that term may be terrifying! To others, it might be a glimmer of hope. Weight loss surgery (or bariatric surgery) refers to a series of minimally invasive procedures that an individual affected by obesity can have in order to reduce their dietary habits, therefore causing them to lose weight. Immediately following these procedures, most people lose a significant amount of weight and continue to do so for 18 to 36 months. When combined with a comprehensive treatment plan, weight loss surgery often leads one to experience long-term health benefits and a greater quality of life. These surgeries have been shown to improve and even resolve health conditions related to obesity, such as: type 2 diabetes, hypertension, heart disease and more.
So, how do you know if weight loss surgery is right for you? It’s is not for everyone. First of all, talk to your doctor. But there are some basic qualifications one must meet in order to be considered for these procedures:
• You need to have a BMI (Body Mass Index) of 40 or more—or you need to be more than 100lbs over weight.
— OR —
• You need to have a BMI of 35 or more and at least two obesity related co-morbidities (type 2 diabtetes, hypertension, sleep apnea and other respiratory disorders, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, osteoarthritis, lipid abnormalities, gastrointestinal disorders, or heart disease).
— AND —
• You’re unable to achieve and sustain a healthy weight loss with prior weight loss efforts.
If you can relate to the above bullet points, you should at least look into the different weight loss surgery procedures. The most common weight loss surgery procedures are: gastric bypass, sleeve gastrectomy, adjustable gastric band, and biliopancreatic diversion with duodenal switch. We will be discussing each of these procedures in detail in the following blogs. We will talk about the advantages and disadvantages, the risks or side effects you could experience, and the details about the actual procedure and the recovery.
We hope you will join us on this journey and learn more about becoming a healthier you.
Series article #2: Gastric Bypass Surgery – Everything you want to know (and more)
Series article #3: Sleeve Gastrectomy – Everything you want to know (and more)
Series article #4: The Duodenal Switch (DS) – Everything You Want to Know (and more)
