Reasons Why You Need Bariatric Surgery
What is Bariatric Surgery?
Bariatric surgery is also referred as weight loss surgery. It is mainly done on obese people or those with a BMI (body mass index) greater than forty. The main aim of this kind of surgery is to achieve weight loss.
What are the Risks of Being Overweight?
Being obese poses many risks to a person’s health. Obesity increases a person’s chances of developing quite a number of health complications such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, arteriosclerosis, fatty liver disease and hypertension.
1. Health Related Reasons for Having Bariatric Surgery
There are many health reasons why people decide to have this surgery. Since bariatric surgery helps a person to reduce weight, they will be able to evade some fatal health complications that would otherwise attack them if they continued being overweight.
Below are some of the health related goals for some people who may need bariatric surgery.
- To Reduce the Chances of Getting Heart Related Complications
Obesity has been known to be a major cause of cardiovascular diseases. This is because the fat may accumulate around the heart making it difficult to carry out its functions.
The fat may also pile up within the aorta and cause difficulties for the heart to pump blood out towards the body. When such things happen, the heart becomes overworked and may start having abnormal beating rhythms or even a heart attack.
An overweight person who is at a risk of developing such problems may need to have bariatric surgery to help them lose weight and avoid them.
- For Fitness Purposes
Being overweight causes your body to be unfit. Therefore you may need to have bariatric surgery to become more fit and healthy. Most obese people would opt for bariatric surgery as it would be an opportunity for them to become more fit.
- To Lower the Risk of Diabetes
Obese people usually have a very high chance of developing diabetes, especially diabetes type 2. Bariatric surgery would help them reduce weight and lower the risk of diabetes.
- To Lower the Risk of Hypertension
Hypertension is also known as high blood pressure. This medical condition has been known to affect a significant number of overweight people. It mostly happens due to fat layering up within the arteries thus reducing the size of the lumen. Therefore, the heart is forced to pump blood at a higher pressure due to the reduced elasticity of the arteries.
Hypertension is a very dangerous medical condition. This is because the heart is made to overwork resulting in complications. Hence you may need to have bariatric surgery to avoid hypertension.
- To Maintain a Healthy Liver
Fatty liver disease is a medical condition in which the liver becomes very fatty as a result of the accumulation of fat. This will automatically make it less capable of carrying out its functions.
Therefore you may have to undergo bariatric surgery to avoid developing any liver problems and to keep your liver in a healthy condition.
2. Social Reasons for Bariatric Surgery
Aside from health reasons, people may decide to have bariatric surgery due to social reasons. Some such reasons may include the following:
- To Look More Attractive
There are people who may feel that being fat makes them look less attractive and wanted in the society. Therefore, they may decide to have bariatric surgery with the aim of wanting to appear more beautiful or to achieve the desired body shape.
- To Participate in Social Contests such as Modeling
There are social platforms such as modeling which require people to have specific body shapes. The fatty outlook of obese people may make a person miss out a chance of participating in such events.
Hence a person may decide to have bariatric surgery to lose weight and slim down in order to have the body fit for events like modeling.
3. Personal Reasons for Undertaking Bariatric Surgery
Sometimes there are those who may need to have bariatric surgery as a result of personal reasons. They may have personal goals to achieve if they are able to lose weight through the surgery.
- To Improve your Self Esteem
Self-esteem is one of the most important things in a person’s nature. There are obese people who may have low self-esteem because they feel incomplete and do not look good enough.
This may prompt them to have bariatric surgery to reduce their weight and achieve what they consider to be a more human look. This will help them appreciate themselves more and improve their self-esteem and appreciation.
- To Improve One’s Grooming
Clothes reveal a lot about a person. People who suffer from obesity usually tend to have problems getting the right sizes for their choice of attire. This could make them have bariatric surgery to reduce weight and be able to fit into more average clothes. This will help improve their dressing and overall grooming.
The Bottom Line
Bariatric surgery can help people achieve a lot of goals. Since it helps in weight reduction, it gives a person a whole new life. Always ensure to discuss with your doctor in order to understand the risks involved with the procedure.
A doctor will also help you understand whether what you want to achieve from the surgery is worth having. This will be drawn mostly by weighing the benefits and disadvantages which will be the outcome of the surgery.
