Georgia has some of the highest obesity rates in the country, with 40 percent of its youth overweight or obese. Addressing childhood obesity is important in both the short and long term; studies have shown that children who are obese in their early teens have an 80% chance of being obese as adults. For obese adults, weight loss surgery is often an effective treatment option. You can learn more about the options offered at the Gastric Band Institute here.

The report shows that both smoking and obesity result in significantly higher health care costs, and with employers looking for ways of reducing health care costs, the findings support programs designed to help smoking cessation and encourage weight loss. Another recent report measuring the cost of obesity calculated that obesity accounts for 21 percent of all health care spending in the country. The report estimates that an obese person’s medical costs are actually higher than the Mayo Clinic’s finding, with an obese individual incurring $2,741 more in health care costs each year, compared to a person of normal weight.

Obesity is associated with a number of health conditions and increased risks. At the Gastric Band Institute, we understand that losing weight and keeping it off can be very challenging. For some people, weight loss surgery is a highly effective treatment option. You can learn more about our program and the procedures that we offer by visiting our website or registering to attend a free educational seminar.

The second study followed 60 obese patients with diabetes, who were assigned to either have bariatric surgery (gastric bypass or biliopancreatic diversion) or non-surgical medical treatment. Similarly to the Cleveland Clinic study, this study showed that the surgical procedures had much greater effects on diabetes. After two years, the patients who had surgery had better glycemic control than the patients who had medical therapy. Additionally, 75% of the gastric bypass patients and 95% of the biliopancreatic diversion patients showed complete remission of their diabetes. Conversely, none of the patients who had medical treatment had complete remission of their diabetes. You can read more about the studies here

To learn more about how bariatric surgery can improve diabetes, sleep apnea, hypertension, and more, attend one of our free informational seminars. Or you can learn more about the sleeve gastrectomy here.

The researchers found that 68% of the women at the six-month visit and 76 % of the women at the 12-month visit had regained some of their lost weight. Further, 16% actually weighed more at the 12-month visit than they did at the start. Of the weight “re-gainers”, 75% gained more than 4 pounds at 6 months, and at one year, 85% had put on more than 4 pounds.  The researchers found that weight loss at the beginning of the study consisted of 33% loss of muscle and 67% loss of fat, but when the weight was put back on, it consisted of 81% fat and just 19% muscle. The study author said that his research puts the issue of post-menopausal dieting into a certain perspective and might even make those who need to lose weight for health reasons, more likely to consider weight loss surgery as it has more reliable outcomes. You can learn more about the benefits of weight loss surgery — such as the lap band — on our website here.

The Minimally Invasive Surgery Symposium consists of lectures, panel discussions, debates and video presentations by world-renowned experts, discussing the latest advances in laparoscopic surgery for obesity, colon disease, hernia repair, and metabolic disorders. The Bariatric/Metabolic component covers the latest strategies for the evaluation, diagnosis, and metabolic surgical management of obese patients. At the symposium,Dr. Ponce also served as an expert on several Q&A panel sessions.

A new study of more than 4000 obese individuals showed that receiving weight loss surgery was associated with a reduced long-term occurrence of cardiovascular deaths, as well as fewer heart attacks and strokes. The study was published in the January 4 issue of JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association).

The data is from The Swedish Obese Subjects (SOS) study, an ongoing, nonrandomized and controlled study conducted at 25 public surgical departments and 480 primary health care centers in Sweden. Researchers looked at patients enrolled from 1987 through 2001. Of the 4000 patients, approximately half were treated with bariatric surgery and the other half was treated through standard non-surgical care, which included advice on making healthy lifestyle changes. The findings were interesting; the data indicated that patients who had surgery were 30 percent less likely to suffer from a stroke or heart attack than patients in the control group, and half as likely to die from such an event.

However, the findings did not demonstrate a statistically significant relationship between weight change and cardiovascular events in either of the groups, meaning the amount of weight loss itself did not show a role in the protection against cardiovascular events. The study authors said this could be because of a lack of statistical power to show this relationship, or because there’s something about bariatric surgery itself which has an affect. They concluded that these results joined with the previously discovered associations between weight loss surgery and favorable outcomes regarding long-term changes of body weight, cardiovascular risk factors, quality of life, diabetes, cancer, and mortality show that there are many benefits to bariatric surgery. Further, some of these benefits are independent of the degree of the surgically induced weight loss.”

Deciding to have weight loss surgery is a big decision that should be carefully analyzed. You can learn more about the Gastric Band Institute’s surgical weight loss program on our website orview our upcoming educational seminars.

In the past year alone, twenty-eight scientific papers have been published on food addiction, adding to the growing body of evidence demonstrating that food can be addictive. The Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse said that the data is so overwhelming that the field is forced to accept it. One of the studies used magnetic resonance imaging to look at brain activity of obese women. Pictures of milkshakes lit up the same regions in the brain that become hyperactive in alcoholics anticipating a drink. Another study gave rats a spread of fatty and sugary products including bacon, pound cake, cheesecake and cake frosting. Rats that had access to these foods for only 1 hour per day began binge eating, although nutritious food was available all day long. Other rats had access to the sweets and fatty foods for 18-23 hours per day and they became obese. The researchers saw in the rats the same brain pattern that occurs with escalating intake of cocaine.

Obesity is a growing concern in the US, fueled in part by our overly-processed food environment. With 1/3 of adults and 17 percent of children obese today, the health costs of obesity to society is massive. A 2009 study found that moderate obesity reduces life expectancy by 2-4 years, and severe obesity by as much as 10 years. Obesity is also a risk factor for diabetes, heart disease, certain cancers, sleep apnea and stroke. At the Gastric Band Institute, we understand that changing eating behaviors is a lifetime commitment, and that changing lifetime habits require education, support, and commitment. We are here to assist in making the necessary changes that can lead to better health. You can learn more about our program here.

Dr. Dixon highlighted the fact that in the trial the FDA required before approving the band for lower BMI’s, over 80% of the participants lost more than 40% of their excess weight. The FDA had required a minimum threshold of 30% of the participants reach this threshold, so the trial well exceeded the minimum expectations. Dr. Dixon also highlighted the safety and ease of the band surgery, and the importance of having treatment options for individuals with lower BMI’s.

Dr. Livingston argued that although he agreed that the FDA trial participants had great weight loss with the band, that the follow up was not long term enough yet to make a decision. He believes that more data should be provided, including data on the improvement of co-morbidities, which the FDA trial did not focus on.

As a gastric band expert, Dr. Jaime Ponce was asked by Doctors of Weight Loss to weight-in on the debate. He told the group, “We have gastric band studies with high level of evidence, including two prospective randomized clinical trials showing extremely good weight loss and improvement in diabetes in these patients. Other studies have documented weight loss with the gastric band in the range of 42-87% EWL at 1-5 years follow-up. Obesity is a disease, with chronic medical consequences, the tipping point is a BMI of 30, and should be treated. Bariatric surgery should be one of the options.”

You can read more about the debate, and about Dr. Ponce’s opinion here.

Before the start of the conference, Dr. Ponce participated in the ASMBS Executive Council meeting as the President-Elect of the society. The meeting included a review of the past year, plans for the upcoming year, and extensive discussion of access-to-care issues. Dr. Ponce has been working along with Dr. Robin Blackstone, current President of ASMBS, on the issues presented and discussed with the rest of the council.

Following the Executive Council meeting, the educational event began on Friday when bariatric surgeons from around the country attended courses which covered various topics in bariatric surgery, including management of difficult cases, adolescents, sleeve gastrectomy, and Center of Excellence designation. For a course about weight loss procedures in patients with lower BMI, Dr. Ponce presented on the laparoscopic gastric band procedure for these patients. He also spoke at a session about billing and coding, and moderated a course in complex cases and management of complications of gastric bands. Later that day, Dr. Ponce co-directed a video course about managing difficult bariatric cases which covered various laparoscopic techniques for addressing complications.

On the final day of the event, Dr. Ponce, along with Dr. Emma Patterson, spoke about complications of the adjustable gastric band. Dr. Ponce covered dysphagia and weight loss failure and Dr. Patterson covered slippage and erosion. Attending programs like the ASMBS Fall Educational Event are critical to surgeons who prioritize staying on the cutting edge of research and having the chance to collaborate with other leading surgeons.