Important Details From Recent Bariatric Study

Earlier in the week we shared an article that explained another important benefit of bariatric surgery – the money that surgery can save patients on prescription drug costs. Here are some important statistics from the recent study that demonstrate how a sleeve gastrectomy or another weight loss surgery procedure can reduce the need for prescription drugs that are needed to treat dangerous conditions that can be a result of obesity.

• For patients who have bariatric surgery, their pharmacy expenses are 22.6% lower four years after surgery.
• People who have weight loss surgery are 74% less likely to have a prescription for diabetes medication four years after surgery. The numbers for anti-hypertension drugs and other cardiovascular drugs are 48.3% and 48.9% lower, respectively.

Obviously, the biggest reason to get bariatric surgery in Thousand Oaks is to improve your health so you can live a longer, more fruitful life. Yet, this financial incentive is another important reason to consider bariatric surgery when weighing the benefits against the risks. For most severely obese patients, the benefits of bariatric surgery outweigh the risks, but a consultation with Dr. Amir Mehran at University Bariatrics is the only way to know for sure if the surgery is right for you.

Severe Obesity: A Public Health Issue

For quite some time now, the medical consensus has clearly and firmly stated the health dangers of severe obesity. The associated health risks are well known, and include conditions like heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and stroke. These life threatening issues warrant immediate action, and for the severely obese, the most effective method to approach a healthy weight is through a bariatric procedure like a sleeve gastrectomy.

Because the rising obesity rates are such a serious health concern, many are advocating for more proactive measures. In New Zealand, a country that is projected to overtake the United States in obesity levels, surgeons are advocating for public funded weight loss surgery to help save lives. Such measures could dramatically reduce the number of obesity related deaths and illness if they are adapted in New Zealand. In the United States, public funded weight loss surgery isn’t likely to happen any time soon, but for the best options for bariatric surgery in Thousand Oaks our highly trained team is standing by. University Bariatrics is here to help.

The Price of Prosperity?

For a nation like India, economic progress is obviously a wonderful thing. A country once largely associated in the West with searing poverty and frequent famine, has become the nation we associate with a high-tech, Bollywood entertainment, and a massive outsourcing industry. However, obesity has emerged as a serious problem in India's increasingly bustling and well-developed cities. Just as you can find bariatric surgery in Simi Valley/Thousand Oaks at our offices, you can also now find it in New Delhi and other cities in the massive nation.

According to an article appearing in today's Washington Post, some 18,000 East Indians had the surgery last year, up 500 from the year before. Also, three government ministers have followed the lead of countless American notables and obtained a weight loss procedure. While it's not clear from the article whether the latest operations, such as sleeve gastrectomy, have taken hold, there certainly seems to be little sign that obesity will not expand to U.S.-like proportions as the successfully developing nation continues to grow beyond a third-world economy.

This begs an interesting question that is of special interest to us here at University Bariatrics. While weight loss surgeries are becoming ever more safe and effective, is there a way to stop obesity before it starts as nations grow more affluent and high-calorie foods become ever cheaper? Other than educating parents on ways to prevent childhood obesity, we don't have any grand answers. If anyone out there has any thoughts we'd love to hear from you.

Bariatric Surgery Can Help You Live a Longer, Healthier Life

It’s no secret that obesity can cause a variety of negative health effects like heart disease, high blood pressure, and Type 2 diabetes. It’s also known that bariatric surgery is one of the best ways for obese patients to lose weight and shed some of these dangerous health conditions along with the pounds. Now, a new study has revealed that it is never too late to add years to your life with bariatric surgery with University Bariatrics. Precisely, patients have a 53% lower mortality rate 5-14 years after receiving a bariatric procedure compared to those who don’t have the surgery.

Dr. Amir Mehran has extensive experience performing every type of bariatric procedure including sleeve gastrectomy and gastric bypass procedures. Many doctors who practice bariatric surgery in Thousand Oaks shy away from gastric bypass procedures because it is more difficult to perform, but Dr. Mehran still performs the procedure for severely obese patients. This is because it is proven to help patients lose the most weight, and, when performed by Dr. Mehran, is as safe as simple surgeries like appendectomies. After all, 75 percent of the patients in the recently released study had gastric bypass surgery over the other options.

Sleeve Gastrectomy for Those Over 65

We've noticed some good news here at University Bariatrics, and we would like to share it. Insurance companies have started to cover sleeve gastrectomy procedures for patients 65 and over. This news helps a great many weight loss patients in that age range out of what could sometimes be an unfortunate dilemma.

The fact of the matter is that a sleeve gastrectomy is rapidly emerging as the best treatment option for most patients faced with severe obesity whose weight issues have proven to be resistant to ordinary diet and exercise regimens. It appears to be a highly viable middle ground. A gastric bypass is highly effective, but also fairly aggressive and not without some possible significant side effects; while our opinion is that the still popular banding operations, such as the Lap Band, are simply not as effective as they really should be. A gastric sleeve, on the other hand, is less radical than a bypass; it leaves the digestive system largely in tact, while still being reliable in terms of long term outcomes.

Especially for older patients, who might well want to avoid the possibility of revision procedures after an initial operation fails to produce results or results in complications, the sleeve really does appear to be the best choice. The fact that insurance companies now agree means that our patients who opt for bariatric surgery in Thousand Oaks can easily take advantage of what we definitely believe is very often the best option available.

It Can Take More Than a Resolution to Lose Weight

Losing weight is one of the most popular New Year’s resolutions. Yet, you may find that as 2015 picks up and the stresses of life come back to us, this can be easier said than done. For many who are severely obese, bariatric surgery in Thousand Oaks may be one of the best ways to help lose the excess weight that may be causing a variety of serious health problems. 

There are several different popular weight loss surgery options including Lap-Band, sleeve gastrectomy, and gastric bypass, but all of them use the same fundamental idea to encourage weight loss. All of these techniques encourage patients to eat smaller portions by either decreasing the amount of food that can enter the stomach at any given time, decreasing the actual size of the stomach, or, in the case of the bypass, taking the stomach out of the digestive process entirely.

Weight loss surgery is not for people who are only a tiny bit overweight and simply want to lose 10 or 20 pounds in 2015. But, for those who are severely obese and concerned about the long-term health problems their weight may cause, weight loss surgery with University Bariatrics could be the perfect way to turn a resolution into reality.

Body Positive

There's a very incorrect idea out there that weight loss surgeries such as gastric bypass and sleeve gastrectomy are primarily obtained for cosmetic reasons. While there's no getting around the fact that weight has an enormous impact on how people are perceived in our culture, and that losing weight can definitely help people socially, at University Bariatrics we're committed to reminding the public this is serious surgery that is nearly always obtained for solid medical reasons.

We were reminded of the public's misconception of bariatric medicine while reading a post that appeared last week at the Time web site. Writer Trish Harms describes herself as a "body positive feminist." That meant that she had intellectually and emotionally accepted her weight and size as being perfectly okay for her. We don't doubt that the emotional and psychological benefits of this were very real for her.

However, what Ms. Harms found was what those of us in the medical community have long known. Obesity is not just a social issue, it is a medical condition that produces real medical harms. From a doctor's point of view, it's truly immaterial whether larger bodies are attractive or unattractive -- that is truly in the eye of the beholder. What we see are the very real medical harms that obesity causes both to the length and quality of life.

If you come to us for bariatric surgery in Thousand Oaks, you'll find that aesthetic or moral judgments about obesity are the furthest things from our mind. We like to think of ourselves as extremely body positive and we want people to be happy with themselves as they are -- it's just that we also want our patients to be as healthy as possible, also.