Picture This: America's Big Fat Future of Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes

Facing the Facts: The High Cost of Obesity in America

Thanks to our friends at  MedicalCodingCareerGuide.com for this infographic!

Related Reading

Today's new York Times reports on studies recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine, "Surgery on Diabetics May Be Better Than Standard Treatment".  

Although the effectiveness of metabolic surgery on resolution of type 2 diabetes is good news, the bad news is, most Americans cannot afford the cost of bariatric surgery, which ranges from $10,000 for adjustable gastric banding to more than $30,000 for the RNY gastric bypass.  

The good news: the world's leading metabolic surgeons are located in Mexico, Costa Rica and Spain, where the cost for the procedure is less than half the U.S. health system.  The best news: Health Travel Guides, a San Francisco-based healthcare technology firm, will guide you every step of the way!

Find out if you are a candidate for weight loss surgery by clicking on this secure link to fill out a personal medical history . A Health Travel Guide will be in touch to answer your questions about traveling for bariatric surgery abroad - something more than 7,000 Americans have done!

• Experts Agree: Metabolic Surgery More Effective Managing Type 2 Diabetes Than Diet, Meds
• Brown Fat, Triggered by Cold or Exercise, May Yield a Key to Weight Control
• Diabetics Have Less Opportunity, Lower Lifetime Earnings
• Minimally Invasive Weight Loss Surgery Alternatives 
• The Noninvasive Solution to Weight and Diabetes Management
• Young, Obese and Getting Weight-Loss Surgery (travel4health.wordpress.com)
• Drinking Water Helps Lower the Risk of Diabetes, Helps Dieters Lose Weight (travel4health.wordpress.com)

Big News For Big Loser Wannabes: New Minimally Invasive Device-Free Restrictive Gastric Plication Free Webcast

Free Gastric Plication Live Medical Webcast: You have nothing to lose but weight!

If you have been researching weight loss procedures, you can't afford to miss this free gastric plication webcast produced by Health Travel Technologies, part of the excellent Patient Education Series.

Gastric Plication is the latest in a series of bariatric innovations (including the gastric pacemaker and metabolic surgery) and features some great benefits for patients:

- minimally invasive: the procedure is laparoscopic
- device free - no band to refill or adjust or remove
- no resection - no loss of stomach tissue
- greater weight loss than LAP-BAND

All of this adds up to lower risk of complication. Weight loss results have been consistently comparable to the much more invasive RNY Gastric Bypass, or Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy. The procedure requires only an overnight hospital stay, and unlike LAP-BAND, which requires a healing period before the first fill (after which optimal weight loss begins), weight loss begins sooner, and happens at a faster rate.

The About Gastric Plication webcast was developed in cooperation with the obesity surgical team of Hospital Angeles, led by Dr. Juan Lopez-Corvala, the world's leading gastroenterologist surgeon performing the gastric plication.

register now!

Bonus: The panel will spend some time discussing another recent bariatric innovation, Green Zone weight loss surgery.

we invite you to check out what we're reading:

Brown Fat, Triggered by Cold or Exercise, May Yield a Key to Weight Control
How LAP-BAND® Is Like a Band-Aid®
Diabetes, Obesity and Superheroes
Why Gastric Bypass Spells the End of Type 2 Diabetes
Minimally Invasive Weight Loss Surgery Alternatives
The Noninvasive Solution to Weight and Diabetes Management
More Fat News and This Time it’s Good!

Resveratrol-Like Drug Eliminates Many Health Risks of Obesity

Fat Chance: 
Obese Mice Given Resveratrol-
Mimicking Drug Live 44% Longer

A designer drug for obese mice suppresses typical obesity-related co-morbidities has given new energy to the notion that the aging process of humans can be significantly slowed.

by The Health Traveler, August 19 2011



Researchers at the National Institute on Aging have discovered that a resveratrol-mimicking drug , SRT-1720, reduces liver fat and improves insulin receptivity when given to obese mice. The obese mice taking the drug added 44% to their lifespan. Clinical trials for humans are now underway.

“SRT-1720... is good evidence that this compound has a positive effect on the physiology of the obese animal, and that is definitely promising for humans”

~Jan Viig, Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx

More Evidence of the Health Benefits of Calorie Restriction
SRT-1720 was designed to essentially mimic resveratrol, the ingredient in red wine (and purple grape juice) thought to activate protective proteins called sirtuins, which gives mice on low-calorie diets a longevity boost.

Since it takes very large doses of resveratrol to obtain the longevity benefits, chemically simulated resveratrol mimics such as SRT-1720 were developed to activate sirtuin at much lower doses.

Sirtuins have been in the longevity reearch spotlight for some time, but studies by Pfizer, among others, did not prove out a relationship. But the National Institute of Aging study is more robust, following large groups of mice for over three years.

Although the drug improved the lifespan of obese mice, it did not not reverse the effects of obesity altogether. In the study, the treated fat mice lived longer than the untreated ones, but had a significantly shorter lifespan than the normal weight mice. SRT-1720 enabled the obese mice to enjoy more of their available life span without actually increasing the normal lifespan, itself.

It is not yet known if SRT-1720 prolongs the lives of normal weight mice; however given SRT-1720 drug did not extend the maximum life span of the obese mice, the researchers said it would be "surprising if it did so with lean mice."

However, the scientific world is watching with interest. Brian Kennedy, president of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging says that sirtuins could turn out to be “key modulators of aging.”

Further Reading

• Resveratrol 
• What is Resveratrol?  
• Resveratrol and Cancer: What is the Relationship?  
• Is Weight Loss Surgery a Drastic Solution to the Problem of Childhood Obesity?  
• Maternal Obesity Crisis: Very Overweight Moms 3x More Likely to Die Within One Month of Birth  
•   The 13 Most Dangerous Complications of Obesity

Is Green the New Black? Green Hornet, Green Lantern, Now Even Green Zone LAP-BAND

Allergan, makers of LAP-BAND, reports that more than 350,000 people around the world have had the LAP-BAND stomach restriction procedure for weight loss. Recently, the FDAapproved relaxed requirements for LAP-BAND, with millions more meeting the qualifying requirement of BMI > 30.

• QUIZ: Not just for soccer moms! What NFL lineman - and coach- had LAP-BAND?

The FDA change is just in time for more patients to take advantage of the latest innovation in non-invasive stomach restriction procedures: the Green Zone  LAP-BAND.  This evolution of the non-invasive procedure will help patients lose post-op weight faster than before, thanks to an FDA-approved medical device by Crospon called the  Endolumenal Functional Lumen Imaging Probe- or EndoFLIP.

Recently I watched a demonstration of the EndoFLIP, which allows the gastroenterologist surgeon to take multiple (up to 16) real-time images of the bariatric patient's gastroesophogeal tract, enabling very precise placement of the LAP-BAND so the patient feels a restriction that is not too loose (not enough weight loss) and not too tight (leading to nausea or reflux, and discomfort during and after eating), but just right for optimized weight loss.

Most importantly, the EndoFLIP enables the surgeon to perform the first fill of the LAP-BAND interoperatively - so patients leave the hospital with a 'jump start' to their LAP-BAND.  Most patients won't need their next fill for 5 or more months, a significant savings on hassle and cost compared to the regular LAP-BAND, which requires the first fill to take place within 4-6 weeks of band placement, and at least another band fill in the first six months. 

 

 Medical Travel Talk radio recently hosted Health Travel Guides on its show to learn about Green Zone LAP-BAND - case manager Leslie McDeavitt has worked with thousands of LAP-BAND patients having their procedure with the top Allergan-certified  obesity surgical team at the Weight Loss Surgery Center at Hospital Angeles in Tijuana Mexico, just 20 minutes from downtown San Diego, where more than 5,000 US patients have had their LAP-BAND placed by Dr. Juan Lopez Corvala.  

Thanks to a special arrangement with Irish medical device maker Crospon, the Green Zone LAP-BAND is available exclusively at Hospital Angeles, a super state-of-the-art facility in a gated medical campus that is the shining star of Mexico's largest private hospital network.

The all-inclusive Green Zone LAP-BAND medical travel program is offered at $5,950 including 2 nights at the hospital and all associated pre-op tests, doctor, surgeon, and medical fees.  Patients are also enrolled in a one-year follow-up program and receive one year of free fills   from Hosptal Angeles.

• read about other medical device manufacturers going abroad

Thanks to Leslie for providing the following information: to find out if you’re a candidate for Green Zone LAP-BAND and learn more about the medical travel process: 

•  click here to email  Leslie 

• call toll free 866.978.2573 x 119

•  securely submit you  personal medical history online (under age 18 use this form) 

  Related Articles:

  • FDA Approves Relaxed Requirements for LAP-BAND
  • VIDEO: This US Doctor Had His LAP-BAND in Mexico