About Obesity

 What is obesity, and how does it relate to weight loss surgery? Georgia Coast Surgical educates the public on these topics and more. Because only with the right information can you make the best decisions about weight loss surgery.

Obesity is emerging as a health epidemic around the world. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, obesity is rapidly spreading across all regions and demographic groups. Recent studies show that 65% of the adult population of the United States are overweight or obese. Even more worrisome is the fact that at least 25% of our children are obese, and 12 million adults suffer from severe (morbid) obesity.

If you are seeking weight loss surgery in Georgia, please contact our caring staff to learn more about your options.

What is Morbid Obesity?

When a person’s obesity is causing bad effects on overall health to the point of significantly increasing the risk of one or more obesity-related health conditions or co-morbidities, he/she is said to be morbidly obese.

Morbid obesity is a chronic disease with symptoms that build slowly over an extended period of time. It is defined as being 100 lbs or more over your ideal body weight, having a BMI of 40 or higher, or having a BMI of 35 or more and one or more co-morbid conditions.

These are medical conditions that are related to, or made worse by obesity. These are called co-morbidities because they are largely caused by the obesity itself and are categorized as major or life-threatening problems, and minor or more common conditions that are not as life threatening.

Major co-morbidities include the following:

Type II Diabetes
Hypertension (high blood pressure)
Hyperlipidemia (high cholesterol, etc.)
Heart Disease
Sleep Apnea Syndrome
Obesity Hypoventilation Syndrome
Asthma
Pseudotumor Cerebri
Minor co-morbidities include the following:

Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD)
Degenerative Arthritis
Depression
Urinary Incontinence
Menstrual irregularity and infertility
Morbid obesity increases the risk for a shorter life expectancy especially for individuals whose body weight exceeds twice their ideal body weight. This brings with it an increased risk of diabetes or heart attack up to seven times greater than in non-obese persons. For these people, control of their obesity can be a matter of life or death.

What Causes Morbidy Obesity?

There are many contributing factors to obesity and these include genetic/hereditary, environmental, metabolic and eating disorders. We know that this is NOT just a lack of self control.

Our genetic make-up plays a major role in gaining excess weight. It determines our “susceptibility” or “risk” of becoming overweight or obese. Many morbidly obese individuals seem to lack the ability to know when they have had enough to eat. They never feel full. Our personalized attitudes also influence our behavior regarding what we eat and how much we engage in physical activities in our daily lives.

Genes also affect how efficiently our body utilizes and burns calories and where our body fat is stored. If you have a high metabolic rate, this means that you burn your calories a lot faster so you are less prone to gaining weight than someone else who has a slow metabolic rate. Some people have the “Thrifty Gene” which slows their metabolism as the calorie intake decreases so much that they can actually gain weight on a diet with as little as 800 calories a day. Even people with the same diet may not show any relation to the body weight of each other while a family whose member’s live apart and do not have the same diet may show a close relation to each other’s body size.

Environmental factors such as fast food diners and the weather can also affect the development of our body weight. For example, people who are always moving or are engaged in physical activities during their daily routine will less likely show signs of obesity than people who sit behind a desk all day.

Eating disorders and other medical conditions also influence our body weight. If you have a medical condition or an eating disorder, it is possible that your condition can be treated with just medication. So it is equally important to consult a doctor to make sure that surgery is the right solution for you

Risks of Obesity

There are medical conditions that are related to or made worse by obesity. These are called co-morbidities and are categorized as major or life-threatening problems, and minor or more common conditions that are not as life threatening.

Major co-morbidities are the following:

Type II Diabetes
Hypertension (high blood pressure)
Hyperlipidemia (high cholesterol, etc.)
Heart Disease
Sleep Apnea Syndrome
Increased risk of sudden death
Minor co-morbidities include the following:

Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD)
Degenerative Arthritis
Depression
Urinary Incontinence
Menstrual irregularity and infertility

Morbid obesity increases the risk for a shorter life expectancy especially for individuals whose BMI is over 40. This brings with it an increased risk of diabetes or heart attack up to seven times greater than in non-obese persons.

Obesity also increases the risks of certain types of Cancer:

Breast
Colon
Prostate
Kidney