Obesity contributes to a host of health problems from breast cancer and heart disease to sleep apnea and Type 2 diabetes. The good news: Weight-loss surgery can help reduce or eliminate many health risks.

A collection of nearly four dozen studies covering nearly 27,000 patients found that people who had weight-loss surgery reported a significant improvement in their quality of life compared to patients who attempted weight loss by only altering their diet and lifestyle.

“Weight-loss surgery has become a vital approach to helping patients achieve long-term weight loss when other conservative methods have failed,” says Dr. Sara Shields Tarwater, a board-certified, fellowship-trained bariatric surgeon at Tidelands Health.

In addition to weight loss, patients who have weight-loss surgery may also experience an array of other health improvements, including:

• • Improved heart health: Weight loss decreases the risk of heart disease and stroke and reduces the risk of dying from high blood pressure or heart attack. Blood pressure tends to return to a normal range after successful weight-loss surgery.
  • Improved Type 2 diabetes: Weight loss has been shown to be highly effective at eliminating the insulin resistance that comes with obesity, ultimately freeing patients from the need for insulin and related medicines.
  • Improved sleep: Up to 85 percent of people who have weight-loss surgery report they no longer suffer with sleep apnea or require a CPAP machine to sleep.
  • Reduced joint pain: Obesity puts stress on weight-bearing joints such as the knees and hips. Losing weight relieves that stress, reduces the need for pain medications and improves mobility.

Tidelands Health offers two types of weight-loss surgery: sleeve gastrectomy, also known as gastric sleeve, and gastric bypass. Both procedures are designed to shrink the size of the stomach, so patients feel full sooner. In addition, weight-loss surgery, also known as bariatric surgery, changes the actions of certain hormones, so patients feel less hungry.

At Tidelands Health, robotic-assisted surgery allows surgeons to use smaller incisions with more precision than traditional surgical approaches.

“Overall, weight-loss surgery can lead to significant improvement in patients’ lives,” Dr. Shields Tarwater says.