What Are the Risks of NOT Having Bariatric Surgery?
Understanding the health risks of obesity is the first step to making a positive change.
The rise of digital technology has empowered more people to take control of their health. Digital tools can support healthy lifestyle changes such as monitoring your diet and engaging in regular exercise. Smartwatches, for instance, are an easy way to keep track of your activity throughout the day, and many people find the daily exercise challenges to be helpful and motivating.
The Cleveland Clinic’s new web-based calculator is the most recent addition to a growing collection of digital health tools. The Individualized Diabetes Complication (IDC) Risk Calculator can help people who are struggling with their weight make informed decisions to minimize their risk factors. These decisions may include diet and lifestyle changes, weight loss medication, or bariatric surgery.
Web-Based Calculator Can Predict Serious Health Complications
The Cleveland Clinic’s Individualized Diabetes Complication (IDC) Risk Calculator can predict a person’s likelihood of developing serious health complications based on certain lifestyle factors. This tool uses statistical analysis and machine learning to analyze age, race, BMI, medical history, medications, and a number of more specific diagnostic metrics to paint a picture of your health ten years in the future. You can even download the risk calculator as an app for iOS or Android.
Ali Aminian, a decorated bariatric surgeon and associate professor of surgery at the Cleveland Clinic, helped design this calculator to enable patients to see the real risks of obesity. Of the calculator, he notes, “This can better inform treatment decisions and doctor recommendations and hopefully lead to improved patient care and outcomes.”
The Importance of Understanding Your Risks
For some people, hearing from a doctor that they’re at risk for type 2 diabetes or heart disease sounds like a far off concern. However, by inputting your lifestyle factors into an online risk calculator, you can see how obesity-related health complications could impact you personally.
Nonetheless, it’s important to recognize that risk calculators like IDC aren’t crystal balls. Even though this calculator was built using expert medical data, it is not a substitute for medical advice from your doctor. Risk calculators should be considered as a guiding framework that indicate how your health will continue to be affected by your current lifestyle — and encourage you to raise any concerns with your doctor.
Armed with the knowledge offered by risk calculators, diabetics and people who struggle with obesity can feel empowered to make informed decisions about their future and the course of their weight loss journey.
Reduce Your Risk With Weight Loss Surgery
If you’re at risk for weight-related health conditions, you may want to consider weight loss surgery. For many people, bariatric surgery offers the best chance of significant, sustained weight loss. Over 1.5 million people are diagnosed with diabetes each year and there are a variety of ways to treat it, but recent research has shown that bariatric surgery is particularly effective at reversing the condition.
Patients who have weight loss surgery can reduce their risk of diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, and other weight-related disorders. In fact, 70 percent of all weight loss surgery patients with type 2 diabetes are free of the condition after the procedure. Combine that with better sleep, better skin, and better mood and bariatric surgery fits into a clear picture of improved health.
Contact the weight loss surgery professionals at Long Island Laparoscopic Doctors today. During your free ten-minute consultation, we’ll explain obesity risk factors and help you choose the weight loss treatment that’s best for you.