About Obesity

Obesity is a disease of excess fat storage that robs us of a fulfilling life and causes the development of a number of serious diseases which take the lives of approximately 1000 American’s daily. It does so in the severely obese patient by directly causing the development of other diseases such as hypertension, adult-onset diabetes and sleep apnea to name but a few. These other diseases are referred to as comorbid diseases. The good news, however, is that significant weight loss can often lead to the complete resolution of comorbid diseases in the severely obese patient. It is important to understand that not all obesity is the same. Physicians use a calculation called a body mass index (BMI) to classify degrees of obesity and define healthy weight.