Have you ever wondered what happens to the part of your stomach that gets taken out during a sleeve gastrectomy?

A few months ago, I had the privilege of teaming up with 12 international doctors and the resulting science became an article that was published in the prestigious Journal of Gastroenterology.

The article was titled, “Helicobacter pyolori Activates and Expands Lgr5+ Stem Cells Through Colonization of the Gastric Glands”.

I think I lost you. My apologies.

Okay, let me back up a bit and share with you how it all came together.

Let me introduce you to Dr. Jesus A. Guitron probably one of the most important figures in my early career. Dr. Guitron was my professor in Endoscopy training during my General Surgery residency. He taught me about medicine, managing surgical and non-surgical outcomes but most importantly he taught me about life.

Dr. Guitron called me one day to ask me about the portion of the stomach that we removed and what became of it.

I explained that as a routine we send the piece of the removed stomach to pathology for examination and if nothing wrong was found, it was incinerated.

He asked me if I was willing to work with Dr. Javier Torres, a medical doctor from Mexico City and a famous scientific investigator. I said it would be a real honor.

Dr. Javier Torres explained that they were having a hard time with a study being conducted.  They needed to compare “sick” (unhealthy) stomachs. Unfortunately, they needed a control group. And, of course the control group had to be comprised of healthy people. The dilemma of course was who gets their stomach removed if it’s healthy, right? Well, I think you know the answer…gastric sleeve patients!

Well, that’s how it all began.

We received all the necessary material from Mexico City then started to process the removed portion of the stomachs. From there it was sent back to the big scientific lab that coordinated results with Stanford University in California.

This scientific study was so exciting for me because I had the privilege to work with 12 brilliant international doctors, a very prestigious university plus, I had the honor of working with my mentor. Oh, and of course we got to help the human race by contributing to science.

So to every single one of my patients who I asked to sign the consent form for this study I thank you from the bottom of my heart for joining me on this study.

Thank you and let’s keep “Changing lives… One sleeve at a time!” and keep on giving to science!