Re-Do Bariatric Surgery

This week I am Co-Chairing and speaking at the 8. Annual Obesity Symposium hosted by the European Surgical Institute in Norderstedt, just outside of Hamburg, Germany. As was pointed out, even in the best hands, 10 to 20% of patients undergoing bariatric surgery will “fail”, often prompting surgeons to reoperate. As I write this post, I am watching live “re-do” surgery on a patient who had an open Mason vertical-banded gastroplasty in 1987 (remining us that bariatric surgery has been around far longer than many people think). Listening to the surgeon (Dr. Bruno Dillemans, Bruges, Belgium) commenting on the operation, it is apparent (even to a non-surgeon like myself), that this kind of surgery can be most challenging. With the vast increase in the number of patients undergoing bariatric surgery worldwide, it is easy to see that bariatric “re-do” surgery will pose a significant challenge down the road. @DrSharma Norderstedt, Germany

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Weight Gain With Methadone Treatment For Opioid Addiction

Weight gain is not an uncommon phenomenon with addiction treatment. This has been reported both in smokers and in those with alcohol addiction. Now a study by Jennifer Fenn and colleagues from the University of Vermont report significant weight gain with methadone treatment for opioid addiction in a paper published in the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment. The retrospective chart review included 96 patients enrolled in an outpatient methadone clinic for ≥ 6 months. Overall mean BMIs increased by about 3 units (from 27.2 to 30.1), which corresponds roughly to an 18 lb or 10% increase in body weight. Interestingly, the weight gain was predominantly seen in women, who gained about 28 lbs or 17.5% body weight compared to men, who only increased their weight by about 12 lbs or 6.4%. As the study did not have access to food records, one can only speculate as to the causes. While better nutrition may well play a role, one could also speculate that there may be some addiction transfer from opioids to calorie-dense foods. Whatever the cause, clinicians should probably be aware of this potential impact of methadone treatment on body weight, as prevention of excess weight gain may be easier than treating obesity once it is established. @DrSharma Edmonton, AB

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Can Dietary Emulsifiers Promote Obesity?

Emulsifiers are amongst the most commonly used food additives to improve the texture and palatability of foods ranging from margarine and mayonnaise to ice cream and baked goods. Now a study by Benoit Chassaing and colleagues published in NATURE, suggests that dietary emulsifiers may promote weight gain and the metabolic syndrome by altering the composition of intestinal microbes. The researchers hypothesized that emulsifiers may increase bacterial translocation across intestinal mucosa, thereby promoting local and systemic inflammation as well as affecting the composition of gut bacteria. Their study in mice show that relatively low concentrations of two commonly used emulsifiers (carboxymethylcellulose and polysorbate-80) can induce low-grade systemic inflammation, weight gain and features of the metabolic syndrome, as well as promote intestinal inflammation in mice susceptible to inflammatory bowel disease. Importantly, they used germ-free mice and faecal transplants to show that these changes can be induced simply by transferring the gut microbes from emulsifier-treated animals to controls. As the authors note, “These results support the emerging concept that perturbed host-microbiota interactions resulting in low-grade inflammation can promote adiposity and its associated metabolic effects. Moreover, they suggest that the broad use of emulsifying agents might be contributing to an increased societal incidence of obesity/metabolic syndrome and other chronic inflammatory diseases.” While these findings (if replicated in humans) certainly point to the industrial use of food emulsifiers as a potential cause of the global increase in obesity and inflammatory bowel disease, given that these compounds are present in virtually all processed foods, they may well be difficult to avoid. Guess it’s back to home cooking with raw ingredients. @DrSharma Edmonton, AB

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Early Bird Registration For Canadian Obesity Summit Ends March 3rd

For all my Canadian readers (and any international readers planning to attend), here just a quick reminder that the deadline for early bird discount registration for the upcoming 4th Canadian Obesity Summit in Toronto, April 28 – May 2, ends March 3rd. To anyone who has been at a previous Canadian Summit, attending is certainly a “no-brainer” – for anyone, who hasn’t been, check out these workshops that are only part of the 5-day scientific program – there are also countless plenary sessions and poster presentations – check out the full program here. Workshops: Public Engagement Workshop (By Invitation Only) Pre-Summit Prep Course – Overview of Obesity Management ($50) Achieving Patient‐Centeredness in Obesity Management within Primary Care Settings Obesity in young people with physical disabilities CON-SNP Leadership Workshop: Strengthening CON-SNP from the ground up (Invitation only) Exploring the Interactions Between Physical Well-Being and Obesity Healthy Food Retail: Local public‐private partnerships to improve availability of healthy food in retail settings How Can I Prepare My Patient for Bariatric Surgery? Practical tips from orientation to operating room Intergenerational Determinants of Obesity: From programming to parenting Neighbourhood Walkability and its Relationship with Walking: Does measurement matter? The EPODE Canadian Obesity Forum: Game Changer Achieving and Maintaining Healthy Weight with Every Step Adolescent Bariatric Surgery – Now or Later? Teen and provider perspectives Preventive Care 2020: A workshop to design the ideal experience to engage patients with obesity in preventive healthcare Promoting Healthy Maternal Weights in Pregnancy and Postpartum Rewriting the Script on Weight Management: Interprofessional workshop SciCom-muniCON: Science Communication-Sharing and exchanging knowledge from a variety of vantage points The Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care’s guidelines on obesity prevention and management in adults and children in primary care Paediatric Obesity Treatment Workshop (Invitation only) Balanced View: Addressing weight bias and stigma in healthcare Drugs, Drinking and Disordered Eating: Managing challenging cases in bariatric surgery From Mindless to Mindful Waiting: Tools to help the bariatric patient succeed Getting Down to Basics in Designing Effective Programs to Promote Health and Weight Loss Improving Body Image in Our Patients: A key component of weight management Meal Replacements in Obesity Management: A psychosocial and behavioural intervention and/or weight loss tool Type 2 Diabetes in Children and Adolescents: A translational view Weight Bias: What do we know and where can we go from here? Energy Balance in the Weight- Reduced Obese Individual: A biological reality that favours… Read More »

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Prevalence and Treatment of Depression In Canada

Depression can be a significant factor both in the development of obesity and as an important barrier to its treatment. Now a paper by Sabrina Wong and colleagues from the University of British Columbia, in a paper published in CMAJ open, present data on the prevalence and treatment of depression in Canadian primary care practices. The authors analysed electronic medical record data from the Canadian Primary Care Sentinel Surveillance Network, of over 300,000 patients who had at least one encounter with their primary care provider between Jan. 1, 2011, and Dec. 31, 2012. Of these, 14% had a diagnosis of depression. Women with a BMI greater than 30 were about 20% more likely to also have depression than women with a BMI below 25. No such relationship was noted in men. Overall, 25% of individuals with a diagnosis of depression also had at least one other chronic condition as well as about 50% more doctor visits than individuals without depression. Clearly, depression is a common problem in primary care and weight management in patients (particularly women) presenting with this problem needs to be addressed (not least because many of the medications often used to manage depression may well be part of the problem). @DrSharma Edmonton, AB

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