Before settling on bariatric surgery, most patients have tried everything under the sun to lose weight. But for millions of people, diet and exercise alone don’t work. One of the most popular bariatric surgeries today is gastric sleeve surgery. Why? For four good reasons…

Gastric Sleeve is Safe
All of my gastric sleeve procedures are done by minimally-invasive laparoscopy and average just 25 to 35 minutes. A shorter surgery means less anesthesia and fewer possible side effects. Gastric sleeve is considered a relatively simple bariatric procedure—so simple, in fact, that most patients can drive in three days and return to work in as few as five days. As for complication rates, they’re very low in general for gastric sleeve. But mine are even lower than average. On average, patients have post-operative bleeding 1 percent of the time. My track record is zero percent. The average rate of pulmonary embolism is 0.05 percent. My history, again, is zero. Risks are a part of any surgery, but rest assured that gastric sleeve is extremely safe, especially at Endobariatric.

Gastric Sleeve is Easy to Live With
You may have heard that some bariatric surgeries require maintenance like band adjustments or “fills.” Gastric sleeve isn’t one of them. In addition to being maintenance free, there’s no need for regular blood work because gastric sleeve allows your body to continue absorbing nutrients. Leaving the intestines intact not only helps prevent malnutrition, but it makes “dumping” syndrome far less likely. With bariatric procedures like gastric bypass, many patients experience uncomfortable symptoms like heart palpitations, weakness, sweating, and dizziness when they eat even a small bite of rich or carb-heavy food. With gastric sleeve, patients can enjoy an occasional treat without jeopardizing their weight loss or experiencing the awful “dumping” side effects.

Gastric Sleeve Works
A big pile of studies has shown that gastric sleeve helps patients lose much of their excess weight. According to the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery, gastric sleeve prompts “rapid and significant weight loss” that’s comparable to bypass procedures, with similarly equivalent maintenance rates at the five-year mark. But gastric sleeve doesn’t have the complications that Roux en Y (bypass).

Remember earlier when I said that diet and exercise alone don’t work for some people? Well, science has now confirmed what so many of you know to be true. The National Institutes of Health Experts Panel recognizes that “long-term weight-loss, or in other words, the ability to maintain weight-loss, is nearly impossible for those affected by severe obesity by any means other than metabolic and bariatric surgery.” It’s not just you. And you haven’t failed because of a personal flaw. It’s just how your body may work.

Gastric Sleeve is a Whole-Life Changer
There’s one element of gastric sleeve that doesn’t get enough attention: It forces you to deal with “head hunger,” which has plagued most overweight people for a very long time. Because your new stomach will only be able to hold three to four ounces of food at a time—and most of your hunger hormone will have been removed—you’ll be able to differentiate true hunger from “head hunger” or emotional eating. And that’s a good place to start dealing with your old habits of wanting to eat, rather than needing to eat, perhaps with the help of a therapist trained in such issues.

The truth is that the benefits of gastric sleeve extend to all aspects of patients’ lives. When you see real, lasting changes in your physical health, you’re likely to experience positive changes to your mental health. Our patients’ quality of life improves in ways such as increased self-esteem, more confidence at work, enhanced social interactions, and newfound or better romantic partnerships.

For all these reasons and more, are you ready to learn more about the gastric sleeve? It can be the solution for your overweight problems! So don’t think about it anymore and start taking the first step!

I invite you to follow us on all our social networks, we are on Facebook (Endobariatric), Instagram (@endobariatric), we also have our YouTube channel where where I answer frequently asked questions that are sent to me, subscribe to it! we talk about very interesting subjects, find us searching for Endobariatric.

If you want a more personalized experience and you have Instagram and Tik Tok, follow me (Dr. Alvarez) to see my day both in my daily routine and in the operating room, add me! We will have a great time! My username is: gmoalvarez (Instagram) and gmoalvarezofficial (Tik Tok).

“Changing lives…one sleeve at a time”.