Blog Archives
The Pros and Cons of a Gluten-Free Diet for Bariatric Patients Without Celiac Disease
Gluten is a group of proteins stored with starch in the endosperm of various cereal grains. Even though “gluten” is a protein specific to wheat proteins, the term “gluten” is generally used in medicine to refer to the prolamin and glutelin proteins present in all grains shown to influence celiac disease. These grains include all wheat, barley, rye, and certain oats. Some people refer to the proteins found in corn and rice as “gluten,” but these proteins do not act as a trigger in celiac disease.
Bariatric Surgery Doesn’t Change How You Think; You Must
You’ve heard it before. Bariatric surgery is just a tool. But it also requires serious psychological changes that aren’t always easy to process. Like any other life-changing decision, you must think about your mindset and intentions before having bariatric surgery. You need to be prepared mentally. And to prepare yourself, you must consider a few things:
Starting a Gym Routine
You’ve done it. You made a monumental decision and took the first giant step in changing your life. You’ve turned it upside down. You just had weight loss surgery, and now, you must keep walking the path. It’s simple enough to say, but of course, harder to do…physical activity. Walking. Swimming. Lifting weights. Hitting the gym.
A concept you’ve heard a lot by now is that weight loss surgery is just a “tool.” It will be instrumental in helping you lose weight and transition into a healthier lifestyle, but it’s just one part of the equation.
Four Habits That Are Jeopardizing Your Weight Loss Results
The weight loss process is a lifelong fight against the chronic disease of obesity. It is a fight you must take on every day yet it’s easy to go off-track. As such, you need to give yourself the best odds to overcome your weight, minimize the risks of relapse into old habits, and give yourself the tools to fight each day. We discuss a lot about diet and exercise advice to stay on track, and there’s a good reason for this. Making these simple changes can be the difference between good and great results.
However, we want to see these habits become second nature so that you don’t even think about putting yourself in a situation that may compromise your weight loss progress. With that said, several small lifestyle changes, some seemingly unrelated to bariatric surgery, can make a big difference in your long-term success. Let’s discuss them and find out why ignoring them increases the risk of going backward.
The 4 Things We Wish Every Patient Knew Before Bariatric Surgery
One of the best things someone can do before bariatric surgery is to prepare themselves as much as possible. This can be done by talking with your healthcare provider, attending educational classes, talking to someone else who has been through the same experience, and researching. Here are four things we wish patients knew before having bariatric surgery.
Detection Challenges With Dense Breast Tissue
Many women (by some estimates, 40-50%) in the United States have dense breast tissue to some degree. This means that a more significant portion of the breast comprises glands and fibrous tissue rather than adipose or fatty tissue. This dense breast tissue, while very typical, does also have significant challenges when detecting masses on screening imaging.
Dense breast tissue can often hide lumps or irregularities normally seen on screening (mammograms). As a result of the similar density of the breast and the lump, a screening mammogram may offer relatively little contrast.
Four Ways to Reduce the Risk of Hernia Recurrence
With about 25% of men likely to develop an inguinal hernia over their lifetimes and 1 million or more hernia operations performed every year, you can imagine no matter how low the recurrence rate, a fair number of people will require a second hernia operation to address what is known as a recurrence. Recurrence is certainly not a guarantee, and with proper care and surgical choices, most patients will never experience a recurrence.
Changing How You Look at Dieting & Exercise After Weight Loss Surgery
With so much confusion swirling around how we eat and proper “diet,” it can all get very frustrating. How many diet books, blogs, and influencers are out there in the ether? Probably more than we can even imagine. While there are plenty of new dietary concepts, there’s one that’s not new, but it may require a mindset shift for some bariatric patients:
Keep it simple.
Do Weight Loss Medications Work Better Than Surgery for Weight Loss?
Millions of Americans struggle with losing weight for years, which can feel like an uphill battle with no end in sight. Obesity is a disease that affects more than 4 out of every ten adults in the United States.1 The American Medical Association began recognizing obesity as a chronic progressive disease in 2013 and describes obesity as having “multiple pathophysiological aspects requiring a range of interventions.”2 Very true.
Have We Found the Cure for Rectal (Or All) Cancers?
It is the talk of the town, and rightly so. The first cancer clinical trial performed at a major cancer center to show 100% effectiveness in cancer remission.1 This reality has shocked us all in the best possible ways.
In short, a trial of a recently approved immunotherapy drug known as Dostarlimab, a single-agent PD-1 blockade,has shown 100% effectiveness against mismatch repair deficient recurrent or advanced solid tumors. The 12 patients who participated in the study at Memorial Sloan Kettering in New York City showed complete remission of their rectal cancer without chemotherapy, radiation, or surgery.
“This is by all accounts an unbelievable achievement and some truly great news when there’s so much uncertainty in our world,” says Dr. Gregory Quatrino, our colorectal surgeon. “These results reverberate around the cancer world and throughout medicine. I do not know of any cancer study showing complete remission in all patients involved. In addition, it doesn’t seem as though any patients had serious side effects.”