Obesity means being excessively overweight. It happens due to superfluous fat deposits in your body. The Body Mass Index (BMI) measurement compares weight to height and is helpful to know if you are obese or overweight. A healthy weight range is BMI of 18-25. BMI over 25 indicates you are overweight and your health is at risk. The cause of obesity could be hereditary or improper diet and less physical activity. Obesity is a serious health issue across the globe. Hence, it brings with it a lot of medical problems.
Health risks associated with Obesity
- Diabetes
- Heart Disease and Stroke
- Sleep Apnoea
- High Blood Pressure
- Osteoarthritis
- Asthma
- Cancer
- Reflux
- Infertility
- High Cholesterol
- Depression
Bariatric surgery
Bariatric Surgery or weight loss surgery is conducted to alter the way your body digests food. It includes a procedures such as gastric balloon, gastric bypass, gastric sleeve, gastric band, and duodenal switch. These procedures are aimed at altering the size of your stomach. It can either be done by removing a portion of your stomach or by resecting and re-routing the small intestine to a small stomach pouch or doing both.
Who Need Bariatric surgery
- Type 2 diabetic patients.
- Patients with 40kg/m² or higher Body Mass Index.
- People who got failure in weight loss with traditional methods.
- Patients with hypertension.
Bariatric surgery is done via laparoscopy or endoscopy. It is divided in three categories:
- Malabsorptive procedures: interference with food digestion to prevent calorie absorption. This treatment is not popular thesedays as it needs long follow- up. It involves rigorous nutritional monitoring as this surgery poses risk of malabsorption and nutritional deficiency.
- Restrictive procedures: limits the quantity of food consumed. Gastroplasty, placement of gastric band, sleeve gastrectomy are restrictive procedures.
- Mixed procedures combine both of the above.
What to Expect After a Bariatric Surgery?
- Laparoscopic bariatric surgery involves one or two-day hospitalization. Consequently, post surgery diet restrictions apply. No solid foods allowed. So, it requires intake of only liquid food in the form of broth or fruit juices.
- After two weeks, pureed foods can be started. However, until one month of surgery, no solids should be taken.
- Overeating causes nausea and throw up.
- Due to reduced gastric capacity, patients experience dehydration in the first few months. It is because of decreased capacity to consume enough liquids.
- All weight loss surgeries offer drastic and almost rapid and long-lasting weight loss.
- Reduced weight leads to increase in life expectancy.
- Low risk of cancer, diabetes or cardiovascular diseases.
- Better metabolism, more balanced hormonal functions.
The success of surgery depends on change in your eating habits, total lifestyle change, regular and rigorous exercise and taking dietary supplements for the rest of their lives. However, weight loss surgery arouses a few complications, particularly in the first six months after the surgery. Some of the side effects are discomfort after eating, bloating, leaks infections and hernias.
Weight Loss Surgery Procedures
- Gastric Balloon: The Endoscopic Gastric Balloon or Intragastric Balloon is a non-invasive Bariatric procedure to bridge the gap between simple diet and exercise. Read More
- Gastric Bypass: It refers to a surgical procedure that helps you lose weight by changing how your stomach and small intestine handle the food you eat. Read More
- Laparoscopic Gastric Banding: It is a least invasive surgery for weight loss and obesity patient. The procedure involves placing an implant Read More
- Gastric Sleeve: It is a surgical procedure that induces weight loss by restricting food intake. This procedure is usually laparoscopically; the doctor removes approximately 75 percent of the stomach. Read More
- Duodenal Switch: This surgery is a combination of a gastric sleeve and gastric bypass treatment for morbid obesity. This procedure is a secondary procedure after a failed gastric band surgery. Read More