childhood obesitySo
the chair of bariatric and metabolic instutitue chair, we offer bariatitc surgery, certified in obesity medicine.
Mostly focus on adults, I have a lot of knwoege on adults, we are hopefully at AHN. I mean we operate on adolescents that will be expanded to include medical treatments.
Been doing this for 20 years, doing research , started from surgical angle, looks get you substance gets you in, its like a relationship,
That’s what got me interested is how it changed their lives. Surgery done in tiny incisions., that’s the looks that got me in the subanstnace, the disease itself, got me in.
Adolsectent bariatitric surgery we do, in 20 years, there wasn’t much interest isn adosliecent barieiatric surgery or managing it propperytly
Studies show that an an obese adolegecsent grows up to be an obese adult. Like any diesieae the earlier you treat it the better there result.
obesity was neglected, was thought to be poor woiliopeower, exercise and you’ll be fine.
Obesity is mulfifacuaol, environment, genetics, what you eat, lack of playing, more on gadgets, but also there ar hormonal factors that make ti hard for those people to get better. For longest time there was no research in field and treatment, but last 5 or 10 years this is slowly and surely changing, more recently we realize if we don’t take care of the kids they’re going to be obese adults.
Companies have new medications on market that are more effective, companies went to FDA to treat children with those, so for the first time we have medications to treat children 12 and about.
So basically, even bariatir surgery societies came up with guileldeline son adults and kids, lower than before because evidence shows earlier treatment is better outcomes.
For adults for example, anybody 18 or above, to qualify for surgery BMI was 40 or higher, or BMI 35 and above and high blood pressure and sleep apnea, now objective evidences showed, they lowered it by 5 points, 35 or 30 with comorbilititites. Lowered those requirements. Same thing in kids, especially at certain age, BMI is not a great way to gauche their lelvel of obesity. So we go by average, percentile, if above 95% of percentile, this is what you have to do.
Surgey can be done at age 12 or 13 but we don’t consider until 15 years old. Adolescent. they go through a more rigorous type of workup and psychological evaluation, spend minimum 6 months of counseling, it’s something we definitely spend more time .
Absolutely, this is why illm applauding the AAP and bringing attention to this issue, if you think about it, I’m glad everybody is patin attest, we really have to stop the stigma that this is a abad thing and ashamed, we have to address it through education, lifestyle changes, for teens, adolescents an adults far into it , give them help, don’t let them suffer for the Rees of their life.
If you raise awareness, you can introduce better lifestyle changes. When we operate on onadultes we see positive changes I the household.
Overweight parents lead to overweight kids, there’s a genetic component and there is a lifestyle component.
It’s a common thing, seen it. a lot during gate pandemic a lot of penitents who had done so well, the pandemic was a turning point and they gained weight back, they were stuck at home, said it was them and the fridge. the past 5 or 10 years, for bariatric surgeons, I’ve been pyushing, for longest time they din’t want to consider obesity a disease.
IF somebody has cancer even though a. lot of diseases start from obesity, it’s linked to cancer, heart attack stroke, diabetes, shortened life, I can go on and on, it has always been though this is like a wifflpower issue. That’
Slowly but surely I think, you writing guidelines, it’s recognized as a disease, doing more research, it’s a grassroots to bring attention, to do more research, you have to talkcel it from different angels, education, think of smoking, drugs, it takes a lot of effort, this should be up there, if we have a more healthier people our society will be better we spend less on health care.
Pandemic Obesity came to the forefront, more likely to get
change Just don’t ignore it, do something, there are now more treatment options, they want it to be addressed more seriously that just moving and eating and moving. Main message is we have to tackle it in multi-facetd fashion.
Main message is if you go into detail, if we can keep it simple and say don’t be ashamed , ask for help, there are other factors that can play a role, ultimately we can prevent problems down the road. It’s impute
remember vividly I had a patient she I saw her at 16, almost weighted around 300 pounds, came with her mother and grandmother very involved in her life, she at 16 she was very mature for her age, not paying attention to her school and studies, I was talking and I was like oh my god, thinking she is not a good candidate. her mom and grandma were huge advocates for her, she’s been gaining weight steadily, I said we’ll work with her, was tough, took a year, made some changes, met with counselor, I did the surgery, I vividly remembers seeing her a year later (many visits after surgery ) but at 1 year mark, she had lost 100 pounds, I was in the presence of a whole new individual, the first impressiona I never forgot, stuck in my mind, she’s a very beautiful girl and that beauty came out, physically, she started doing well at school, at 2 years she ha d boyfriend, went fromvyer immature child to mature woman, had a plan for future, they kept in touch, I personally had moved systems, haven’t’ seen her in 2 years they’d send me Christmas cards, pics from college, I remember very well, people should not live in you need to give hope, this girl, that’s one of the things that makes me happy about what I do. troubled child, then you brought her back and changed her life, she was going one this is what gave me passion about the disease, I was always taken back appalled because we shame people when we should help them.