This is a drastic surgery for the morbidly obese, defined as those who are at least 100 pounds heavier than the ideal for their age, height and weight. Obesity is considered the second-leading cause of preventable death in the United States. This serious surgery requires a lifetime commitment to nutrition and following proper protocols to make sure your body is getting enough vitamins.
It is rising in popularity as the American obesity rate skyrockets. Some 18 million people in the United States are categorized as obese, according to statistics compiled by the National Institutes of Health. As the number climbed, so, too, did the number of bariatric surgeries, rising from 16,000 in the early 1990s to an estimated 180,000 in 2005, according to the American Society for Bariatric Surgery.
Whether you are clinically overweight is determined by something called the Body Mass Index, or BMI. It’s a calculation based on weight and height, using age. Generally, a person with a Body Mass Index of 25 to 29.9 is considered overweight. Those greater than 30 are obese. Those whose BMI is higher than 40 are considered to be severely obese and are good candidates for bariatric surgery.
With more than two in three adults considered overweight or obese, clearly it’s a health crisis that requires non-conventional intervention. Obese people are at high risk of Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, fatty liver disease, arthritis, stroke and some types of cancer.
Thus, bariatric surgery has stepped into the breach.