World Obesity Day: all the details of the innovative treatment without surgery to lose weight

Obesity is a disease It is triggered by multiple factors: from dietary habits to genetic, metabolic, cultural, emotional and socio-economic aspects. To reduce its complexity to the abundant intake of high-calorie foods and a sedentary lifestyle is to minimize a global public health problem.

Consider obesity as a condition of multicausal origin, although the Healthy eating and physical exercise are fundamental pillars to treat it, in recent years they have grown advanced treatments that improve the quality of life of patients. One of them is the gastric balloon swallowable without surgery.

He Overweight and the obesity They are defined as an abnormal or excessive accumulation of fat that conditions a person’s health and determines, together with other risk factors, a greater predisposition to contract cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancer and other complications. .

Specialists from the World Health Organization (WHO) warn that the disease has reached dimensions Epidemic: Obesity rates have nearly tripled since 1975 and have increased nearly fivefold among children and adolescents, affecting people of all ages in the Americas and around the world.

The goal of anti-obesity therapies is to achieve and maintain Healthy weight. This improves overall health and reduces the risk of developing complications related to metabolic disease. The multidisciplinary approach is a key step for a treatment that lasts over time and is successful. In some patients, pharmacological therapies may be used, always indicated and followed by a health professional, who will indicate them based on personal medical history.

He swallowable gastric balloon consists of a pioneering treatment which consists for the patient of ingesting a capsule containing a gastric balloon which is inflated once it reaches the stomach. The unique treatment is designed to keep the patient feeling full and able to six month program change habits and sustain results over time.

Worldwide more than 100,000 balls have already been placed and in Argentina more than 2,500, without surgery, without anesthesia and without endoscopy.

In Argentina, six out of ten adults are overweight and more than half are obese. This pathology is associated with 200 other complex diseases such as type II diabetes, hypertension, vascular and coronary diseases, hepatic steatosis, among others. And it is considered one of the most stigmatizing diseases that exist.

Dr. Mariano Palermo, specialist in digestive and bariatric surgery, coordinator of Diagnomed, an institution affiliated with the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) and doctor of the General Surgery Department of Posadas Hospital in Buenos Aires, pointed out that “the overweight is a chronic health problem, which does not appear overnight or resolve itself in a week. Unquestionably the axis is in good habits over the long term. There is no magic, but science can help you achieve your goal weight and maintain it over time by changing and strengthening your habits with the help of an interdisciplinary team”.

In 2022, Dr. Palermo and his team performed the Ingestible Gastric Balloon Study: First Consecutive Experience in Argentina, the results of which were published in Journal of Laparoendoscopic and Advanced Techniques, an international journal with a strong scientific impact. The study showed that the digestible gastric balloon is an effective and safe tool for the treatment of overweight and obesity.

“The Allurion program offers a complete treatment because it works with the ingestible gastric balloon which, by mechanical effect, generates a feeling of satiety and makes the patient consume less food and less frequently, but without a doubt the most important thing is that the patient manages to change his habits to maintain the weight loss he has achieved with the ball. To achieve these goals, we work with a multidisciplinary team that includes a nutritionist, a psychologist and a personal trainer to follow up the patients,” said said the specialist.

The program is a complete healthy lifestyle plan that allows you to lose weight on average between 10 and 15% of body weight in 6 months. The procedure is non-invasive and is performed on an outpatient basis.

Treatment begins with a consultation with a multidisciplinary team, which includes doctors specializing in nutrition, obesity, psychologists specializing in eating disorders and a certified surgical team that comprehensively assesses the patient for placement of the intragastric balloon.

The process is carried out in an x-ray room. The patient ingests a capsule with some water containing the balloon inside and which is attached to a thin catheter, which is removed once the filling process is complete. . “For this procedure, it is not necessary to carry out any sedation or endoscopy to introduce the balloon into the stomach, an X-ray control is simply carried out for a few minutes to check that it is correctly implanted. Once the capsule is ingested, when it reaches the stomach, the balloon is filled with 550 cc of liquid. The balloon lasts in the body for 4 months and after this time a release valve allows it to be emptied for the elimination of the ball in a natural way,” explained Dr. Palermo.

The balloon occupies a large part of the lumen of the stomach with the aim of providing satiety to reduce appetite while the patient receives nutritional education and acquires new healthy eating and living habits, integrating activity physics as a key element of treatment.

The patient also receives digital monitoring tools which include a mobile application as well as a scale to which they will be connected and watch it Health Tracking, which allow the multidisciplinary team to follow the patient precisely, motivating the latter to modify his lifestyle. The treatment is aimed at people over 16 who are overweight or obese.

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