Overweighted people breathe easier after weight-loss surgery
Patients who’ve lost weight after bariatric surgery breathe easier and take 50 percent fewer prescription breathing medications, a new study finds.
Researchers reviewed the medical records of 320 patients for one year before and after they had bariatric surgery at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. The patients filled a total of 324 prescriptions for breathing medications in the year before surgery, and 154 prescriptions in the year after surgery.
“Not only do patients breathe easier, less money is spent on prescription health-care costs,” study author Dr. Naveen Sikka said in a news release. “Better quality of life, possible reduction of chronic breathing problems, including asthma, and lower health-care costs significantly benefit patients and help to reduce the national health-care crisis.”
“Some obese patients develop asthma, while others are treated for breathing problems with medications typically used for asthma. The results of this study bring us closer to determining if weight loss can improve asthma long-term,” Dr. Andrew Weinstein, vice chair of the Asthma and Respiratory Disease Committee of the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, said in the news release.
Having Surgery to Help With Weight Loss
Six years ago, St. Alexius Medical Center and Mid Dakota Clinic teamed up to design the PrimeCare Surgical Weight Loss Program. Since it was founded, the program`s two surgeons have now performed 1,000 weight loss surgeries.
When discussing the option of weight loss surgery, doctors first look at the patient`s body mass index, or BMI. It`s a number calculated by their height and weight. Candidates for surgery have a BMI greater than 40, or greater than 35 if they have another medical condition associated with their weight.
Hope White Bear loves to walk. But it didn`t always come easily. Before gastric bypass surgery last month, White Bear struggled to walk up stairs, and circled store parking lots to find the closest space.
“Because I have osteoarthritis in both knees, it really limited my mobility of walking, being able to walk long distances, short distances, without it hurting,” said White Bear. “Right there is where it stopped me from living.”
At her heaviest, she weighed 295 pounds. Sick of diet failure, she looked into surgery. On March 3, a Wednesday, White Bear underwent gastric bypass surgery. She left the hospital Friday, and by Monday she had begun her new favorite activity — walking.
Hope says one important lesson she`s learned is that surgery is not the answer to weight loss. Through nutrition classes, she`s learned how to make healthier choices in eating and in everyday life.
“You can lose a lot of weight but if you`re not doing things, giving your body what it needs to make your heart, your brain, your bones, your immune system healthy, weight loss is only part of it. Doing these other things, diet and exercise, is going to make everything work as well as it can,” said surgeon Dr. Brandon Helbling.
Helbling says he can see how his patients` progress allows them to take part in life, and enjoy activities they haven`t done in years.
“One of the biggest things I see with a lot of my patients is they feel like they can do more now. They`re not so short of breath and tired all the time. As that weight goes away, so does the feeling of, I can`t do anything,” said Helbling.
“I love walking, swimming with my kids, taking them for bike rides, hiking,” said White Bear. “We just came back from the Black Hills and we just enjoyed it immensely to hike up trails.”
White Bear is up to 4 miles a day, and last week, she was given the green light to begin strength training. If you are interested in learning more about surgical weight loss options, talk to your doctor.
Sources:
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