Weight Loss Surgery
Houston Weight Loss Surgery Center offers a number of weight loss procedures. Dr. Darido insists on offering the surgery that is most effective for each patient. Weight loss surgery is not about making the stomach small and forcing the patient to eat less. The history of bariatric and weight loss surgery has taught us that anytime we “force” a patient to eat less in order to loose weight we fail. A successful weight loss procedure is a metabolic procedure. A metabolic procedure alters certain hormones that affect body weight, appetite and satiety, as well as energy metabolism.
Gastric bypass, Gastric Sleeve Surgery and Duodenal switch are metabolic surgeries. For example, Ghrelin, a hunger hormone secreted by the stomach, decreases after gastric bypass and gastric sleeve surgery . For this reason, gastric bypass and gastric sleeve patients report increased satiety and decreased hunger. Ghrelin is only one of hundreds of hormones that change after a successful weight loss surgery. Lap band, intra-gastric balloon placement and gastric plication are restrictive procedure with no metabolic effect. Most lap band patients do not report hunger control. The success rate for restrictive procedures with no metabolic effect is very low. For this reason, Dr. Darido does not recommend lap band, gastric plication or intra-gastric balloon placement.
By the same token, diet and exercise programs fail to offer long-term weight loss for patients with severe obesity. When a person looses weight by diet and exercise, Ghrelin (hunger hormone) increases. An increase in ghrelin level stimulates a person’s appetite. This in turns leads to increased food consumption, which results in weight regain. This is the reason why so many diet regimens like jenny Craig and others fail to achieve durable weight loss.
At Houston Weight Loss Surgery Center, we spend lot of time educating our patients.“ Weight loss is a life long journey; it does not start and end with the surgery itself,” says Dr. Darido. Bariatric surgery by itself cannot permanently cure obesity. Adopting a healthy lifestyle, light and fresh diet, moderate daily exercise and a positive outlook on life will insure wonderful long-term results for health and weight.