Seminars for Pre-pregnancy Women Concerning Their Weight and Its Possible Influence on Their Future Child's Weight

A bariatric or weight loss center can help women, and improve the center's image, by offering community outreach programs. Seminars for pre-pregnant women built around proper weight and diet plans could be among those programs. Maintaining proper weight and diet is very important to a mother's future child's health.

New research shows that there is a link between a pre-pregnancy woman's weight and her future child's weight. If a woman is overweight or obese prior to pregnancy, there is a greater likelihood that her child will be overweight at between two and three years of age. And being overweight, at an early age, increases the likelihood of being overweight in later life.

So pre-pregnancy women should be made aware of the importance of maintaining a healthy weight before pregnancy. And for those women needing help with their weight management, seminars directed at helping these women through diet, exercise and other means, could benefit the women.

And concerning diet, a recent study done on sheep in the United Kingdom appeared to show that babies, born to mother sheep who got too few B-vitamins in their diets before conception, had a greater risk of being obese in later life.

Researchers believe that this risk might also exist in humans. Therefore, actions could be taken to mitigate this risk. B-vitamins that may mitigate the risk can be obtained by eating fruits, leafy green vegetables, liver, red meat, eggs and dairy products.

So the seminars directed at pre-pregnancy women could be used to encourage the women to include foods containing B-vitamins in their diets.

The seminars would benefit pre-pregnancy women. And the seminars could enhance the bariatric or weight loss center's image. Therefore, these types of seminars should probably be an element in a center's strategic plans.
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Tags: bariatric, weight loss center, b-vitamins, strategic plans, strategic management

Offering Weight Loss Surgery at a Fixed Price

It is difficult to determine exactly how much health care services cost in the U.S. In fact, this is one of the biggest problems within our health care industry. And the problem exists, to some extent, with bariatric or weight loss surgery. According to one report, predicting the final cost of the surgery is also a problem in other countries.

The report mentioned the Hospital Sao Luiz in Brazil. Dr Roberto Rizzi and his multi-disciplinary team structured the hospital's bariatric surgery program.

One of the hospital's laparoscopic gastric bypass surgical packages is priced at $11,497. And this price includes the cost of any complications that might occur.

U.S. weight loss or bariatric centers should look at the procedures used in this Brazilian program. According to the above report, at least one American took advantage of the surgery, and was quite satisfied. The Brazilian hospital may well be an important competitor in the bariatric or weight loss industry.

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Tags: weight loss surgery, bariatric surgery program, weight loss competitor, bariatric competitor, weight loss industry, hospital, bariatric industry

Gastric Bypass Surgery Versus Insulin for Diabetes Treatment

Diabetes is on the rise in the U.S. For example, cases of diabetes continue to increase among children. However, reports show that for some patients with type 2 diabetes, gastric bypass surgery has apparently cured the patients of the disease.

So some experts feel that gastric bypass surgery can be used for more than just weight loss. In fact, the American Society for Bariatric Surgery (ASBS) changed its name to the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS) to recognize non-weight-loss applications of gastric bypass surgery.

At least one organization, the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, has started treating type 2 diabetes using a modified version of the gastric bypass surgery used for weight loss. In the modified version of the surgery, nothing is done to shrink the stomach; only the small intestine is rerouted.

Using gastric bypass surgery to treat diabetes, no doubt, will receive more attention. And if it turns out that, indeed, the surgery can be a good diabetes treatment, bariatric surgery will present another option.

The use of this treatment may become an important option. Research shows that insulin treatment for type 1 and type 2 diabetes causes some patients to gain weight. And gaining weight can be a negative factor in cardiovascular disease.

So depending on how viable the utilization of gastric bypass surgery is for treating diabetes, compared to insulin use, it may be reasonable in some cases to consider gastric bypass surgery for the treatment.

But again, this is something that has to be looked at carefully. And of course, bariatric or weight loss centers should stay abreast of activities associated with the use of gastric bypass surgery for the treatment of diabetes. It might turn out that offering this treatment could give a weight loss or bariatric center a competitive advantage.

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Tags: bariatric treatment centers, gastric bypass surgery, bariatric surgery, competitive advantage, diabetes, ASBS, ASMBS

Another Strategic Reason for a Bariatric or Weight Loss Center to Avoid Post Bariatric Surgery Complications

There are many reasons that a weight loss or bariatric center would want to prevent complications following a bariatric surgery. Complications can be traumatic for the patient. And complications, many times, increase the cost of bariatric surgery.

Another important reason a bariatric or weight loss center should want to avoid post surgery complications is that CT scans may not be an option, after the surgery, for some bariatric surgery patients.

A recent report indicates that CT scans cannot be used to diagnose post bariatric surgery complications in obese patients who weigh more than 450 pounds. The reason is this: The scanning equipment does not have the capacity to handle patients who weigh more than 450 pounds.

However, there may be a reason to want to avoid CT scans: Research at Columbia University shows that too many CT scans may lead to cancer. So if an obese person has had a number of CT scans and the person experiences post bariatric surgery complications, the weight loss center must weigh the pros and cons of more CT scans.

Avoiding post surgery complications is at least one way to possibly avoid the need for more CT scans, as well as the need for other procedures. And a weight loss or bariatric center that puts processes in place to reduce complications will have a competitive advantage.

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Tags: bariatric center, weight loss center, CT scans, competitive advantage, post surgery complications, bariatric surgery, healthcare