Being Overweight Ups Stroke Risk, Study Confirms

Link to Article | http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63426Z20100405

Written By: Anne Harding

MONDAY, Apr 5th 2010 (Reuters New York) – ”Being obese (but indeed even just overweight) puts an individual at significantly higher risk of ischemic stroke, with a serious possibility of permanent disability and reduced life expectancy,” Dr. Pasquale Strazzullo of Frederico II University of Naples Medical School in Naples, Italy, one of the study’s authors, told Reuters Health. Read the rest of this entry »

Hello Everyone,

The following clinical research investigates the safety of Gastric Banding (Lap-Band) as an outpatient procedure for morbid obesity in Canada. The four year study led by myself and Dr. David Mumford of the Surgical Weight Loss Centre in association with Mary Ann Chapman and Leandra Wells, followed 1, 641 patients who undergone the Lap-Band procedure from February 2005 to July 2009 with an average BMI of 46.7.

Fifteen out of the 1, 641 patients experienced minor complications during surgery or within 30 days of surgery while four patients required transfer to hospital from the clinic on the day of surgery and three were admitted. None of the complications were serious and all were resolved.

Not only does the study reveal numbers that show the safety of performing the Lap-Band procedure in an outpatient setting for the treatment of morbid obesity but also adds to the developing number of published literature regarding this subject.

Happy reading!

Dr. Cobourn

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Lap-Band Surgery Effective for Morbidly Obese Children, Study Finds

Link to Article| http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091103171911.htm

FRIDAY, Nov 6th, 2009 (ScienceDaily) – A surgeon at Children’s National Medical Center and his colleagues from New York University have found laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding (Lap band) to improve the health of morbidly obese adolescents.

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The following abstract was taken from a systematic review of the literature Physical Activity, Fitness and Fatness: Relations to Mortality, Morbidity and Disease Risk Factors published on September 9, 2009 in Obesity Reviews: An Official Journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity by Mikael Fogelhom from the Academy of Finland, Helsinki.

For the full article, please visit the following link http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19744231

The purpose of this systematic review was to study the relative health risks of poor cardio-respiratory fitness (or physical inactivity) in normal-weight people vs.
obesity in individuals with good cardio-respiratory fitness (or high physical activity). The core inclusion criteria were: publication year 1990 or later; adult participants; design prospective follow-up, case–control or cross-sectional; data on cardio-respiratory fitness and/or physical activity; data on BMI (body mass index), waist circumference or body composition; outcome data on all-cause mortality, cardiovascular disease mortality, cardiovascular disease incidence, type 2 diabetes or cardiovascular and type 2 diabetes risk factors. Thirty-six publications filled the criteria for inclusion. The data indicate that the risk for all-cause and cardiovascular mortality was lower in individuals with high BMI and good aerobic fitness, compared with individuals with normal BMI and poor fitness. In contrast, having high BMI even with high physical activity was a greater risk for the incidence of type 2 diabetes and the prevalence of cardiovascular and diabetes risk factors, compared with normal BMI with low physical activity. The conclusions of the present review may not be applicable to individuals with BMI > 35.

Weight-loss Surgery Worthwhile for Diabetes

Link to article | http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE5374BC20090408

WEDNESDAY, April 8, 2009 (Reuters Health) - As a strategy for treating type 2 diabetes in obese individuals, gastric surgery to induce weight loss is effective and worth the cost, investigators in Melbourne, Australia, report.

A recent clinical trial showed that “surgically induced weight loss leads to the remission of type 2 diabetes in the majority of obese patients,” Catherine L. Keating at Monash University and others note in the medical journal Diabetes Care.
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Regulating Commercial Weight-Loss Programs

Many patients suffer repeated failure at diets that can lead to a unjustified sense of desparation, depression and subsequent low self esteem.

The following editorial was published in the Cdn Medical Assoc Journal on Feb 17, 2009.  It points out the lack of evidence to support the use of “fad diets” and commercial weight loss programs that promise unrealistic  results.  Many studies have shown that although many patients are able to lose weight with these programs, approximately only 2% are able to sustain a 20 lb weight loss for more than 2 years.

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A study published in the January issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association found that obese patients with Type 2 diabetes who underwent laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding (LAGB) were five times more likely to have their diabetes go into remission than patients who engaged in conventional weight loss therapies, such as diet and exercise. The four-year study, which was led by Drs. John Dixon and Paul O’Brien from Monash University’s Centre for Obesity Research and Education (CORE), monitored 60 volunteers for two years who underwent significant weight loss of more than 10 per cent of their body weight.

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Hello Everyone:

I am posting some links to some recent articles that I have come across that may be of interest. I hope to do this regularly as these articles or studies are published. I hope you find them interesting and let us know if you have any questions. Happy Reading.

Obesity Risks Increase After Menopause

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/86777.php
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An important study was published in the Annals of Surgery in December 2007 by Dr. Paul O’Brien and colleagues from Melbourne Australia. This study showed a 72% reduction is mortality in patients with intentional weight loss (Lap-Band surgery) compared to a matched cohort of patients who did not undergo weight loss surgery. The patients were matched for age, sex and BMI.
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Welcome to the first posting of The Surgical Weight Loss Centre Blog. This format is meant to be a way that the staff at The Surgical Weight Loss Centre can share some of the established ideas and new concepts regarding weight loss, with a particular emphasis on the role of the Lap-Band, Intragastric Balloon and other surgical procedures. If you wish us to comment on a particular issue or on something you are concerned about please let us know by sending your question to info@lapband.ca or filling out the fields below, we will do our best to respond.