|
HowToPreventHeartDisease.com |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
When and Why Is Obesity Surgery Necessary? About 33 percent of American adults are obese, with their body mass index (BMI) reach and exceed 30. BMI is a common measure used to determine whether a person is overweight or obese. Dividing one’s weight (kilos) by the square of the height (meters) will give the value of one’s BMI. For instance, a person who weighs 90 kilos with a height of 1.73 meters is considered obese. While obesity will bring along many medical complications including Type-2 diabetes, high cholesterol, heart disease, hypertension (high blood pressure), stroke, and even certain types of cancer, people who are morbid obese with BMI of 40 and above could have increased mortality rate that is directly related to weight increase. To get rid of the extra weight on one’s body is never easy, especially for one is obese. It is necessary to get off with a weight loss program. Dieting and physical exercise are the best to begin with. Though diet programs might produce weight loss over the short term, it is rather difficult to keep this weight off. Frequently, the obese must make exercise and lower calories diet a permanent part of his or her lifestyle. Meanwhile, embarking on weight loss program requires a great deal of effort and determination from the participants themselves. As such, the success rate for long-term weight loss maintenance is fairly low and ranges between 2 and 20 percent.
Should weight loss program fail, the next possible alternative would be taking weight loss medications. Unfortunately, weight loss with drugs is modest and certain slimming drugs might even increase the risk of heart attack and stroke in obese or overweight patients with cardiovascular disease. Evidence found in some previous studies had shown that mortality associated with obesity would significantly be reduced with weight loss in certain populations. And the best effective way to deal with obesity is to undergo weight loss surgery, which is also known as bariatric surgery. In the United States, Federal guidelines state that obesity surgery should not be considered unless someone has tried conventional ways to reduce weight and has a BMI exceeding 40, or a BMI of 35 with weight-related medical conditions such as diabetes or high blood pressure. In the past, cost of outdated bariatric procedure coupled with unacceptable high risk of complication has prevented many patients from taking up this option. The current weight loss surgery is, however, much safer. A study funded by Federal government can elaborate this. On July 30, 2009, researchers from the University of Washington in Seattle reported in New England Journal of Medicine that for every 1,000 patients undergoing weight loss surgery, 3 died during or within a month of their surgery, and 43 had a major complication. In comparison, this figure was certainly much better than the nearly 20 deaths per 1,000 patients found in earlier studies a few years ago. More importantly, it was definitely lower than the longer-term risk of dying of heart disease, diabetes and other complications that obese people would have developed. Moreover, the current weight loss surgery is also effective and affordable because of lower doctor visits, medication use and other medical expenses. This would definitely make bariatric surgery a viable option for people who are morbid obese. The figure provided by the American Society for Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery showed that at least 220,000 obesity surgeries were done in the United States in 2008. Now, with the availability of safer and more affordable weight loss procedures, millions of potential eligible obese adults might opt for this option. The potential cost of operating is enormously huge and it could further burden an already financially stressed health system.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||
Copyright
2007-2012 © HowToPreventHeartDisease.com . All Rights Reserved.d....... |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
