What is Bariatric Surgery?

Bariatric surgery is a general term referring to a variety of surgical procedures that help severely overweight or obese individuals lose a significant amount of weight and maintain a healthy weight.

What is Morbid Obesity?

Since 1998, the National Institutes of Health has relied on Body Mass Index (BMI), a complex ratio of weight to height, to estimate the amount of fat on a body. To help clarify the implications of different BMI scores, the NIH developed BMI categories:

An adult man with a BMI of 40 is roughly carrying an additional 100 pounds. Women may reach a BMI of 40 by carrying an additional 80 pounds of weight.

As your BMI increases above 25, your health risks also increase. Morbid obesity may considerably reduce life expectancy and is associated with an increased risk of developing life-threatening conditions or diseases, including diabetes, stroke, respiratory problems, sleep apnea, hypertension and certain forms of cancer.

Why Consider Bariatric Surgery?

Carrying a significant amount of excess weight increases your likelihood of suffering from potentially life threatening weight-related diseases such as diabetes or hypertension. These diseases diminish your quality of life, are expensive to treat, and significantly decrease your life expectancy.

If you are at least 75 pounds overweight and have tried repeatedly to lose weight through conventional methods involving diet, exercise, and perhaps even weight loss medications, but have not had success, you may be a good candidate for weight loss surgery. Research has shown that over 90% of severely overweight individuals who try dieting and other weight loss programs are not able to achieve significant and sustained weight loss.

Bariatric surgery has proven to be the most effective method to help those individuals lose a significant amount of weight and maintain that loss. Bariatric surgery markedly improves weight-related disease, prevents further complications of obesity, increases life expectancy, and greatly enhances a patient's quality of life. In addition to the health benefits that typically result, patients who elect to have bariatric surgery often experience increased self-esteem, improved employment opportunities, and even sometimes see a rise in income.

By contrast, the National Institutes of Health report that 90% of the people who participate in diets and weight loss programs do not achieve significant and sustained weight loss. If traditional weight loss programs have not helped you lose weight and keep it off, you have another option in bariatrics surgery.