Newswise — The Vanderbilt Center for Surgical Weight Loss is
developing an online education seminar for prospective patients
to take in the privacy of their own homes.

Just as it was difficult a few years back for doctors to talk
to their patients about the dangers of smoking, discussing a
patient’s weight can be equally difficult, according to Ronald
Clements, M.D., director of the Vanderbilt Center for Surgical
Weight Loss and professor of Surgery.

The interactive seminar opens the door to that conversation,
while providing a means for the surgeons to assess each
patient’s general understanding of obesity and its treatments
even before their first appointment.

“Our goal is to take away some of the mystery surrounding
bariatric surgery and dramatically improve the lives of so many
battling the harmful effects of this disease,” Clements said.

Patients seeking surgical weight loss are at least 100 pounds
overweight, or twice their ideal body weight, and diet and
exercise hasn’t worked.

That was the case for 46-year-old Manuel Gomez of Madison,
Tenn. After trying countless diets, he found himself at a size
48 with high blood pressure and diabetes. His doctors gave him
two years to live if he didn’t lose the weight.

After bariatric surgery, he lost 125 pounds, dropped to a size
29 and can now run and play with his son. He even helps coach
his son’s soccer team.

Unfortunately, many people are still unaware of or simply
afraid of this course of treatment, Clements said, although
numerous studies prove the safety and long-term effectiveness
of bariatric surgery as the solution to morbid obesity.

“We don’t face competition from other surgeons in the area, we
face competition from ignorance and fear,” Clements said.

Clements said modern bariatric surgery has changed considerably
over the past decade. Physicians and surgeons now have a better
understanding of the physiology of obesity, which has led to a
better approach to treatment that includes the total well-being
of the patient.

Advances in laparoscopic surgery have considerably improved
surgical outcomes, with fewer complications and shorter
recoveries. Surgery has also been shown to reduce some of the
serious health effects of obesity.

“Treatment with bariatric surgery no longer ends with the trip
to the OR,” he said. “We now provide complete post-operative
care, from outpatient follow-up to help with nutrition to
psychological counseling.”

A recent study published in the New England Journal of
Medicine shows that within seven years of gastric bypass
surgery, patients experienced sharp declines in the rates of
death associated with cardiac disease, diabetes and cancer, by
50 percent, 90 percent and 60 percent, respectively.

To learn more about bariatric surgery or to take the online
seminar, go to http://www.vanderbilthealth.com/surgicalweightloss^[1]

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1. ^{^} http://www.vanderbilthealth.com/surgicalweightloss
   (www.vanderbilthealth.com)