How to Get Control of Your Obesity

Long before COVID-19 struck, 650 million people around the world were struggling with another pandemic of sorts — obesity — and they continue to struggle. If you want to break free of these numbers and gain control over your health and wellness by addressing your obesity, we have solutions.

At Advanced Surgeons, our weight loss experts specialize in highly effective surgical procedures that have helped millions of people leave obesity behind. 

If you’ve decided that this is the year that you want to take charge of your weight, read on to explore how we can set you on the road to significant and sustainable weight loss through bariatric surgery.

What you should know about obesity

The first thing you should understand about obesity is that it is a disease and should be treated as such. In other words, when you have obesity (as opposed to being overweight), your ability to control the problem diminishes. 

What this means is that going it alone can be a struggle, because “losing weight” can be anything but easy due to the physical, mental, and emotional challenges that often accompany obesity.

As with any other disease, seeking medical help is the best path forward for improving your health, which is where our team here at Advanced Surgeons can help.

Are you a candidate for weight loss surgery?

If you’ve tried, unsuccessfully, to lose weight and your weight is leading to serious health issues, such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, or poor musculoskeletal health, you’re likely a candidate for weight loss (or bariatric) surgery.

While we hesitate to put numbers to the problem, some good rules of thumb for bariatric surgery candidacy include:

• Having a body mass index (BMI) of 40 or higher
• Carrying 100 pounds of extra weight
• Having a BMI of 35 or higher and a related health condition, such as hypertension or diabetes

Again, we feel that every person has unique circumstances outside of these numbers, and the best way to find out whether you may benefit from bariatric surgery is to come see us.

Different approaches to weight loss surgery

If we decide together that the best way to control your obesity is through bariatric surgery, you have several options, including:

• Gastric sleeve
• Gastric bypass
• The Orbera® gastric balloon 
• Biliopancreatic diversion 
• Duodenal switch
• Laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding
• Endoscopic revision of gastric bypass

In some cases, such as the gastric bypass or duodenal switch, we make changes to your digestive anatomy to encourage weight loss (decreasing the size of your stomach and/or reducing absorption of food by bypassing some of your intestines). 

In other cases, such as with gastric banding or the Orbera balloon, we reduce the volume of your stomach without making any anatomical changes. These options are reversible and adjustable, as well.

Whatever option is best for you, the results of all of these bariatric procedures are impressive. For example, one five-year study of 66 patients who underwent bariatric surgery (mostly gastric bypass) found a “statistically significant reduction of weight and body mass index 6 months and 5 years after surgery.”

Another study among children and adults who underwent a gastric sleeve procedure found that patients lost on average nearly 30% of their total weight. The study also found “widespread reversal” of Type 2 diabetes and key heart disease risk factors.

We could go on, as there’s no shortage of studies that point to the successes of bariatric surgery in addressing obesity, but we want to stop here so you can take your next step.

To get on the road to a healthier new you this year, contact one of our locations in Valhalla, Carmel, or Poughkeepsie, New York, to learn more about resolving your obesity, once and for all.