Bariatrics is the medical term given to the treatment of obesity. Obesity seriously increases the risk of diabetes, heart disease, asthma, some forms of cancer, sleep apnea and musculoskeletal diseases. Whether you are a healthy weight or obese is determined by a measure called the Body Mass Index (BMI), which calculates your weight relative to your height and rates you against a scale (where <18 is underweight and 40 and above is morbidly obese). You can find an online BMI calculator here.

How is Bariatrics treated?

Bariatrics treatment includes dieting and exercise, including medically supervised diet plans but also has more powerful weapons such as weight-loss surgery and anti-obesity medicines in its arsenal. Unfortunately, dieting often only has short term results.

Weight-loss surgery has become popular in Amercia, and according to reports, appears to be more successful in keeping lost pounds off permanently. Weight-loss surgery is usually only recommended and available for those who severely obese, and where dieting and exercise regimes have failed. Weight-loss surgery works by helping to reduce the number of calories that are available in your body. There are two ways this can be achieved surgically:

• Restriction - by reducing the size of the stomach, only small meals can be eaten and the appetite is satisfied
• Malabsorption - by bypassing part of the small intestine, less calories from food are absorbed by the body

The operations that work by restriction are:

• Gastric band
• Vertical banded gastroplasty
• Sleeve gastrectomy

The operations that work by a combination of restriction and malabsorption are:

• Bilopancreatic diversion
• Duodenal switch

Further information