Bariatric Surgery Revisions and Conversions

When a patient gains weight after their primary bariatric procedure – usually several years after surgery, if ever, we evaluate whether it is simply a lifestyle issue, where the patient is not compliant with their post-operative lifestyle, or whether the procedure needs to be converted or revised to offer better weight loss potential.

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The Importance of a Pre-operative Psychological Evaluation

Many patients don’t realize the importance of their psychological evaluation before bariatric surgery and, in turn, do not take advantage of the professional assistance that they can receive. In fact, many patients believe that the need for a psychological evaluation means that there may be something wrong with them. That is decidedly not the case.

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Does Walking Burn Off Belly Fat?

Let’s get right to it, walking is a great exercise for anyone, at any age, with just about any ailment. The exercise guidelines that we as a practice provide, include a significant amount of walking, which will start immediately after the surgical procedure. In fact, while you’re still in the hospital recovering, you will be encouraged to get up and walk around the hospital floor to get blood moving. This helps avoid blood clots and minimizes the risk of infection.

This walking will continue in the early recovery stage once you are home. You will be asked to walk progressively further each day. This will increase your mobility, help your medium-term recovery and ultimately kickstart you are postoperative exercise plan.

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How to Run After Bariatric Surgery

It may seem obvious but running after bariatric surgery is not as simple as tying up those laces and bolting down the street. Immediately after bariatric surgery, you will not have lost a significant amount of weight and your excess body weight will still be putting significant pressure on your joints. This is especially true in the knee and ankle joints which take the brunt of the force when you run.

Over time, of course, much of this weight will disappear and it will be easier and safer for you to run.

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How Much Does the Gastric Sleeve Cost?

Being that the gastric sleeve is the most popular bariatric procedure in the United States, many of our patients wonder exactly how much it will cost and unfortunately, the answer to that does vary. The variance is ultimately in how you intend to pay for surgery.

A number of Nevada health insurance policies cover bariatric surgery. However, there may be exclusions for bariatric surgery even if other policies with that same company cover it. We always suggest that you take a look at your coverages and exclusions and work with our team to verify your benefits. If you are covered by your insurance plan, you will also have a number of financial obligations associated with your policy. These will include a co-pay, deductible, and coinsurance. one or more of these may apply until you reach your out-of-pocket maximum at which point your health insurance policy should handle all covered services. You can work with our billing and benefits verification staff to understand exactly how much your procedure will cost if using insurance.

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A New Understanding Of Osteoarthritis

Obese patients are often told by their doctors that the extra weight they carry can contribute to osteoarthritis – a degenerative form of arthritis often caused by wear and tear on the joints. Decades ago, it was mostly middle to older age adults that experienced osteoarthritis, but the average age of onset has declined as the obesity epidemic has gotten worse. Figure that an extra pound of body weight puts an additional 4 pounds of pressure on the knee joint. Being that we use our knees throughout most of the day, it is no wonder that the cartilage in the knee would start to break down if one were dozens or even hundreds of pounds overweight.

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When Dieting Alone No Longer Works

The early phase of the post bariatric surgery recovery plan involves significant dietary restrictions. For the first several weeks after surgery, you will cycle through various restrictive dietary phases including clear liquids, liquids, soft foods and ultimately a modified regular diet. Some modifications will continue for the rest of your life, but after six to eight weeks, the overall diet will become somewhat less restrictive.

There will be a point however where dietary restriction alone no longer works. This is why we stress that diet and exercise must go hand-in-hand. You will lose weight faster by limiting the number of calories you consume, but there is a finite number of calories you can cut before it becomes unhealthy. Continue reading

Obesity & COVID – 1-Year Update

Obesity is a prevalent issue in the U.S. that affects people of all ages and backgrounds. By some estimates upwards of 40% of all American adults are obese. A full 2/3’s of adults are overweight. The medical complications that come with obesity are numerous, increasing in severity the higher a person’s weight is. The health impact of obesity has once again come to the forefront of concern and is has been shown to be a major risk factor for poor outcomes in patients who contract the Covid-19 virus.

Some of the facts, available at www.cdc.gov, that impact obesity and Covid-19 are:

• increasing the seriousness of respiratory compromise from Covid-19.
• tripling the risk of hospitalization if you are infected by Covid-19
• increasing your risk of dying from Covid-19

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Mindful Eating. What Is It and Why Does It Matter?

Mindfulness can play a very important part of the postoperative lifestyle. Mindfulness is a very simple concept – to be in the present moment when performing various activities. For a bariatric patient, that might be understanding and appreciating the food we eat, as we eat it.

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Getting Enough Exercise at Home

The COVID pandemic has stopped many of us from performing activities in the gym, Pilates or yoga studio or at spin class. Whether the result of closures or being afraid to contract COVID, we likely aren’t losing as much weight as we should. First, it is important to remember that everyone is going through the same thing and second, very few people have been able to get through this very difficult and strange time without experiencing some kind of weight concern. However, while it may seem difficult, you can actually get excellent exercise – at home.

Before figuring out how exactly to make your home workouts most efficient, we have to discuss an important point. There is no one-size-fits-all solution. Every patient has a different exercise or activity they enjoy and as such the list in this article is simply a guide and not necessarily endorsing one exercise over the other.

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