Dr. Biswanath Gouda Clinic

Hello, 

I am Doctor Bishwanath Gouda. Laparoscopic GI Surgeon. Today I would like to talk to you about obesity. obesity is a big problem in India. we go out to the malls, we go out in the streets we see it, everyone is driving fast, running a fast life, eating fast food and no time for exercise and that's where we land in India. You ask anyone either he or she would be suffering from diabetes or blood pressure or heart disease or acidity problem or cholesterol you name it. It is there and this has increased healthcare cost for population. Obesity also causes fatty liver, you must have noticed many people go for ultrasound routinely and they say I have a fatty liver and it's not the fatty liver which we see in alcoholics, it's a fatty liver which we see in non-alcoholics, which is more health concern in our society.

So why do we talk about obesity or more weight or excess weight, why is it so important. If you look 40 years down the lane earlier we never used to give so much of importance to the weight, it is always felt if you are overweight that means you come from very flourishing or well to-do family but things have changed, we know the weight causes what to your health. It causes diabetes, it causes early heart attacks, it causes acidity, its gives you sleep apnea, its gives you knee pain and all that comes with it. So when do we think when you have more weight that is a point of concern, see ideally if you are like 10 or 15 kilos overweight you can join a gym, see a dietitian, you can go see a fancy nutritionist and he or she may help you lose weight, but what the problem is when you have more weight which is like 20-25 kilos more than your ideal body weight. That's where the problem starts. You are not able to exercise because the weight is too much, you are not able to follow diet because following a diet on a day-to-day basis is difficult, for how long you will be follow a diet? you will do it may be for a month, maybe for 2 months but not for your life time and this is the class of patient which needs surgery. what do you mean surgery, it is weight loss surgery where we reduce the size of your stomach or you put a loop of intestine and make a bypass and that is where it's a life changing procedure but we call it bariatric surgery, which is done laparoscopically.

You come to the hospital, stay in the hospital for maybe 1 or 2 days everything is done laparoscopically which the common man says laser surgery and this surgery will bring your health back in life. Your diabetes most likely will come under control, your blood sugar, blood pressure medicines might be weaned off or might be reduced, you may not need to take any cholesterol medication and your knee pains will ultimately go off because your weight reduces. So this weight reduces does not reduces over a day or one day, no, you will see the weight reduce every month, you will lose about 4 to 5 kilos every month for almost a year and that's when you plateau it, so when we have obesity as an epidemic engulfing our nation, weight loss surgery is one of the most important and the way to go for those patients and people who have a weight of more than 30-40-50 kilos overweight than the ideal body weight. So when we think about surgery, you think about bariatric surgery and you think about any nearby hospital which offers you this procedure please go and consult and take care of your life.

Thank you