With current estimates as high as 65 percent of Americans classified as overweight, obesity has gone from being an anomaly to being as common as French fries and hamburgers. And it seems like everyone has a solution to the problem: Jenny Craig and Dr. Atkins only to name a few. With so many cures out there, why are we still plagued by the disease?
Obesity is emerging as a health epidemic around the world, but particularly in the United States. Obesity is defined as an excess of total body fat, which results from caloric intake that exceeds energy usage. A measurement used to assess obesity is the Body Mass Index (BMI). The metric calculation for BMI is weight in kilograms divided by height in meters (kg/m2). According to the Centers for Disease Control, obesity is rapidly spreading across all regions and demographic groups. An estimated 97 million adults in the United States are currently in the obese category. Of this group, 11 million adults suffer from severe obesity, often referred to as morbidly obese. Typically this means a hundred pounds or more over weight.
Why is this important? The American Obesity Association reports that obese individuals have a 50-100% increased risk of death as compared to normal weight individuals. This translates into about one half million obesity related deaths each year. This substantial increase in health risks has made obesity the second leading cause of preventable death in the United States.
If you are overweight and think its just, plain harder for you to lose weight than it is for your thinner friends and colleagues, your suspicions are correct. For the obese and morbidly obese, it is physiologically more challenging to lose weight. Its ironic, that those individuals who need to lose weight the most have more hurdles to overcome than those of a healthier weight. The reason is because in order to feel full and satisfied after a meal, food has to fill the stomach all the way to the top to trigger the "I am full" receptors. When someone eats large quantities of food consistently, their stomach gradually stretches and becomes larger than normal, so more food is needed to reach those receptors at the top of the stomach. When an overweight person attempts to lose weight the stomach is often so severely stretched that weight loss and satiety are a nearly impossible combination, almost always resulting in failed diet after failed diet.
To be classified as morbidly obese a person generally must weigh at least 100 pounds more than his or her ideal weight. This translates into a BMI of 40 kg/m2 or more. The National Institutes of Health reports that morbid obesity considerably reduces life expectancy and is associated with an increased risk of developing a variety of conditions and diseases such as:
- Diabetes
- Stroke
- Hypertension
- Joint Problems
- Sleep Apnea
- Cancer
- Coronary Artery Disease
- Respiratory Problems
Surgical Options
Currently, we offer three surgical treatments for weight-loss
