Nicholson Clinic

Hovering on the brink of obesity when diets and exercise don’t serve to help remove pounds is a very frustrating place. After all, should weight continue to climb, the chances for health complications can increase dramatically. With heart disease, diabetes and the potential loss of self-esteem all on the line, many people seek out alternatives to help them get their weight in check. A new non-surgical option may offer the hope so many are after. The Orbera gastric balloon offers a unique way to shed pounds. It delivers the benefits of weight loss surgery without the complications of surgery itself. What’s more, the procedure is completely reversible. That means once the pounds are shed, there’s no reason for the alteration to remain permanent. Orbera involves the insertion of a balloon into the stomach. This balloon is filled with a saline solution so it inflates to about the size of a grapefruit. Like weight loss surgery, the procedure effectively limits stomach holding cap...

There’s more to controlling diabetes than keeping food intake in check. Keeping extra pounds off can also be incredibly important. This is especially so for type 2 diabetics who may find obesity may be the root cause of their disease. When pounds are shed, there’s a good chance symptoms will subside. In an effort to better understand just which option is more effective at controlling type 2 diabetes, medicine or weight loss surgery, researchers recently conducted a long-term trail. As it turned out, about half the patients in the weight loss group managed to be diabetes-free at the five year mark. The breakthrough study was conducted at Kings College London. To discover which method worked the best, researchers randomly assigned obese people with type 2 diabetes in to three groups. Twenty patients used standard medication, 20 received a gastric bypass and 20 had a biopancreatic diversion. As it turned out, about 80 percent of those who underwent one of the surgical procedures ha...