Weight Loss Surgery Insurance Coverage Issues Highlight the Need for Greater Awareness of Benefits, says Dr. Feiz & Associates
LOS ANGELES (PRWEB) May 17, 2018 -- A May 7 article on The Atlantic discusses how US states where obesity is most endemic also tend to be places where coverage for weight loss surgeries remains distressingly rare. Los Angeles area weight loss specialists Dr. Feiz & Associates notes that, aside from the huge costs that could be saved if procedures such as sleeve gastrectomy were more widespread, the fact that more people are not allowed to dramatically improve their health is an enormous national tragedy. More awareness of how any why weight loss surgery works is needed, says the clinic.
According to the article, no more than two percent of people who would be eligible for a procedure are currently obtaining bariatric procedures. Dr. Feiz & Associates says that the percentage of people taking advantage of the procedure would most certainly be higher if both family doctors and members of the public were better educated regarding the massive amount of data supporting the effectiveness and safety of weight loss procedures. The clinic notes that one part of the problem is that many doctors and severely overweight people assume that their inability to defeat their obesity is related to a character flaw. In fact, obesity’s staying power is primarily caused by evolutionarily imperatives that go back to ancient times, when hunger was by far the greater threat to human survival. The clinic says that hormones such as ghrelin, which “tell” the brain that more food is needed, tend to be present in larger amounts in obese and overweight individuals. Worse, once an individual succeeds in losing some weight, ghrelin production increases. So, a trait that likely saved the lives of hunter gatherers by encouraging them to find food in times of scarcity is actually doing harm in an era when fattening foods are only too accessible, says Dr. Feiz & Associates.
While, as noted in the article, the kind of extreme diet tactics shown on TV reality shows have been scientifically proven as short-lived at best in the vast majority of cases, bariatric surgeries appears to be effective in two ways. Dr. Feiz & Associates says that a sleeve gastrectomy – now the most commonly recommended procedure – reduces the size of the stomach by roughly 75-80%. Not only does a smaller stomach make overeating much more difficult, it actually reduces the amount of ghrelin being produced. The nagging feelings of hunger which sabotage most weight loss efforts are therefore simply less of a problem, says the clinic. It adds that, even so, weight loss procedures don’t actually make weight loss easy. For the vast majority of patients it simply makes it possible, says the clinic.
Interested readers may phone Dr. Feiz & Associates at (800) 868-5946 or visit the clinic’s site at http://www.drfeiz.com/.
Dr. Feiz & Associates, Dr. Feiz & Associates, http://www.drfeiz.com/, (800) 868-5946, [email protected]
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