When it comes to obesity, it’s not always about the numbers on the scale. Instead, Dr. Brad Beckham of Baptist Memorial Hospital-Golden Triangle, said it’s about years on your lifespan.
“You’re going to die 5 to 15 years earlier than you otherwise would have been expected to just from being obese,” Beckham told the Exchange Club of Columbus on Thursday afternoon.
For years, Beckham said, conversations about weight loss focused on diet and exercise. But over the past 20 years, doctors have realized the concept of weight is more complicated, including genetic and especially hormonal factors.
“Fat in our body is not just a storage mechanism,” Beckham said. “It is actually a very active organ in the body. It produces hormones in and of itself, which have to do with our hunger, how satisfied we are or feel, and that affects our ability to burn calories and … chronic diseases.”
Drastic changes to diet and exercise, Beckham said, may even cause more weight gain over time, since the body will try to return to a “set point” due to homeostasis.
But a new program, which came to Baptist within the last year and a half, has made surgical options for losing weight available in the area. Beckham said he has been performing about 2-3 of these surgeries a month, since the program started.
One of the most common weight-loss surgeries performed is a laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy, a surgery where five half-inch incisions are made to remove about three-quarters of the stomach— leaving a stomach the width of a thumb behind.
Beckham said that by removing the top portion of the stomach, which is the region primarily responsible for producing hunger hormones in the stomach, a patient feels less hungry and more satisfied, while the stomach’s capacity is also reduced.
“Typical results, in the first year after surgery … most people have lost about 25% of their total weight, or about 60% of their excess body weight, and we figure those goals out for the patients,” Beckham said.
The surgery must also be accompanied by diet and lifestyle changes, Beckham said, or regaining about 5 to 10% of the weight lost immediately following surgery is likely. The diet recommended to patients both before and following surgery is similar to a keto diet, with a focus on high protein intake and low carbohydrates, along with whole and unprocessed foods.
In the past year, Beckham said, the surgery has begun to be recommended for patients with a BMI as low as 30, if there are other health issues that would also contribute to the recommendation. But with a BMI of 35 to 40, a laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy or other weight loss surgeries are even more likely to be recommended.
While this surgery helps with losing pounds, Beckham said there are many health benefits to combating obesity that are not just numbers on the scale. Losing weight can help to combat serious chronic health conditions, like fatty liver disease and diabetes. But there are other, more human victories as well.
“The weight on a scale is just a number,” Beckham said. “… It means a lot more… when we get to see the non-scale victories. Which is chronic diseases getting better, or a family calling saying ‘hey I’m playing with my kids,’ or ‘I’m tying my shoes for the first time in 20 years by myself.”
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 38 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
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