Bariatric Surgery Offers More Than Weight Loss

Dr. Christine Ren-Fielding was one of 7 New York State doctors who assessed the effect of Laparoscopic Adjustable Gastric Banding (LAGB) on weight loss, sleep and metabolism. LAGB is a type of bariatric, or weight loss, surgery. With LAGB a patient has a restricting band placed around a portion of their stomach. This band is adjustable and controlled by doctors to limit the patient’s intake of food. An effective method of losing weight, Dr. Christine Ren-Fielding and the others involved in the survey, which looked at thirty patients one year post surgery, sought to see if other facets of patients’ health were improved along with weight loss.

Study Overview

230 subjects, both men (10) and women (20) and between 31 ½ and 56 ½ years old agreed to have their health monitored. All were patients at a university-based medical center’s surgical weight loss program and had a BMI of more than 30.

The study assessed whether the effect of the weight loss resulting from the surgery improved symptoms of sleep apnea and sleep disturbances due to sleep apnea, oxygen saturation levels, sleep architecture, and fasting hormone levels.

Dr. Christine Ren-Fielding found that patients saw improvement after one year in all three areas:

• Patients lost 44.5% of their excess weight
• Patients had decreased sleep disruption from sleep apnea by 33.7%
• Patients’ leptin levels saw a reduction of 31.7%

Weight loss has a positive effect on several areas of overall health including joint health and, as this study proves, both sleep and metabolism.

If you would like to learn more about bariatric surgery, talk to your primary care physician and set up an appointment for a consultation with a bariatric surgeon like Dr. Christine Ren-Fielding.