If you have nutrition questions, we have the answers.

All of our pre-and post-operative patients are invited to attend a weekly Nutrition Q&A in our office lobby each Wednesday from noon to 1:30 p.m. During this time, registered dietitians from the Blount Memorial Weight Management Center are available to provide nutrition advice. Participation is free.

Proper nutrition is essential for bariatric surgery patients, both before and after surgery. Prior to surgery, patients must focus on attaining the best possible health, and that includes both exercise and good diet. Because bariatric surgery limits the amount of food that can be taken in or the amount of nutrients absorbed, post-surgery patients must ensure the food they eat is nutritious.

These weekly, interactive nutrition sessions are yet another service we provide to ensure positive outcomes and good health for our patients. For more information about Nutrition Q&A, contact us or visit our office during session hours.

Chambers, 36, was a long distance runner while a student at William Blount High School. She says she doesn’t remember when or why she stopped running, but by her mid-30s, she had stopped running and put on more than 100 extra pounds.

“After high school, my life happened, and running wasn’t part of it,” said Chambers.

Following her procedure, Chambers began walking. Soon, she progressed to walking half a lap and running the other half. After a couple of months, she was running a mile or two at a time. That’s when she decided to “go for the gold” and train for the Covenant Health Knoxville Marathon – a 26.2 mile event.

She trained by running four or five times a week, increasing her mileage over time. On average, her runs were about six or 10 miles. Her longest pre-marathon run was 20 miles. On race day, she ran the first 15 miles; walked for a while when a torrential rain hit; and ran the final four or five miles. She completed the marathon in 6 hours, 24 minutes.

Chambers, a married mother of two, celebrated other accomplishments this past spring. In addition to completing the marathon, she earned her bachelor’s degree in nursing from Lincoln Memorial University and celebrated her weight loss of more than 80 pounds.

Chambers says that the weight loss has changed her life. “It gave me back things in my life that I shouldn’t have let go of in the first place.”

Can surgical weight loss help you to achieve your life goals? Sign up for a free seminar and explore your options.

You’ve weighed your options and decided that weight loss surgery is best for you. So, what now?

If you’re a Foothills Weight Loss Specialists patient, you’ll get a pre-operative behavioral plan designed to help ensure your weight loss success. The plan includes elements that will prepare your body and your mind for surgery. Here are some highlights:

• Take the long view of this process. Remember that you are not perfect. Getting it right 80 percent of the time is good enough.
• Chew food slowly. Try to chew each bite 30-40 times.
• Get 60 minutes of exercise or non-exercise movement every day.
• Consume 64 ounces of water every day.
• Consume only good carbs – whole grains, vegetables, fruits and beans.
• Respect your body; respect yourself.

Following this pre-operative behavioral plan will help you form positive habits that can last a lifetime.

Sign up for a free seminar today and learn more about how our comprehensive care supports your long-term weight loss success.

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Satterfield, 58, says that he has struggled with his weight since he got out of high school. Noting that it’s a lot more fun putting on weight than taking it off, Satterfield says that over the years he tried just about every diet out there with no long-term success.

After a considerable amount of research, Satterfield decided that gastric banding seemed like the right option for him. “I liked the fact that the band could be adjusted,” he says. “For me, the whole process is easier than going to the dentist.”

Satterfield has noticed many benefits to his weight loss – both mental and physical. He’s experienced a boost to his self-esteem, saying that the weight loss “changes your looks and your outlook.” As for health benefits, he no longer requires treatment for sleep apnea or high blood pressure and he has increased stamina that helps him keep up with the rigors of being a high school football coach. “If I feel good and have a good attitude about being at practice, my players feel good about being there,” he says.

The coach is following our instructions to eat right and exercise. He stays active walking, farming and gardening, and says that he feels good and has the energy to do all the things that he enjoys. At 205 pounds, he even wears the same pant size that he did in high school.

To find out if gastric banding or another surgical method is right for you, contact us today.

If you fall into the category of morbidly obese (more than 100 pounds over your ideal body weight), chances are you have suffered through nearly every diet craze out there, hoping that each one will be your ticket to success. Rather than putting yourself through the emotional and physical turmoil of yo-yo dieting, consider having weight loss surgery.

Research shows that diet and exercise – even when combined with weight loss medications – simply do not work for the severely obese. For individuals who have repeatedly tried and failed to lose significant weight, bariatric surgery offers the best chance for success.

According to the National Institutes of Health, “Weight loss surgery for the morbidly obese, when combined with behavior modification, is currently the most reliable and only choice for long term maintenance of excess weight loss.” (NIH Consensus Statement, March 1991)

I am always careful to point out to my patients that weight loss surgery is no silver bullet. Successful, long-term weight loss requires a lifetime commitment to healthy eating and regular exercise. Surgery does, however, greatly increase the likelihood of success.

And, while there is a certain degree of risk with weight loss surgery, the risk of death from obesity-related conditions is far greater than the risk of death from bariatric surgery. In fact, obesity is now the second leading underlying cause of preventable death, with tobacco being first. Recent studies show that the risk of an early death for those struggling with obesity is twice that of a non-obese person.

If you are significantly overweight and tired of being on the “diet treadmill,” register for a free seminar to determine if bariatric surgery is right for you.

Simply speaking, banding is a nudge in the right direction for weight loss, while gastric bypass is a push in that direction. Because the gastric band is a restrictive procedure that only limits food intake, the patient must be motivated to eat healthier options and follow an exercise routine to ensure weight loss. Gastric banding works best for patients who have driven personalities and a well-defined desire to succeed.

We offer the Realize gastric band, which wraps completely around the upper part of the stomach, and the Realize Injection Port (which is inserted during the same surgery as the band) is attached to the abdominal wall underneath the skin. The injection port is used to add or remove saline after surgery, which controls the tightness around the stomach. The system allows patients to feel full more quickly and for longer periods of time.

There is no “one size fits all” to weight loss surgery. What works best for one patient may not be the right fit for another. Through our thorough pre-surgery evaluation process, we can help determine if gastric banding is right for you.

If you’re considering weight loss surgery, sign up for a free seminar to learn about your options.

The scanner is a cutting-edge tool that measures your Skin Cartenoid Score (SCS). Cartenoids are pigments found primarily in fruits and vegetables. They help protect your body from free radicals – unstable molecules that steal or “scavenge” electrons from other molecules. Many of the physical effects associated with aging are the result of free radicals. Pollution, food additives and preservatives, poor diet, insufficient exercise and stress all put free radicals in your body.

Consider an apple that has been exposed to the air. The exposed part of the apple turns brown as a result of free-radical damage. However, if the exposed part of the apple is covered with lemon juice, it doesn’t brown as quickly. The antioxidants in the lemon juice help protect the apple from free radical-damage.

Antioxidants are your body’s first line of defense against free radicals. A high level of cartenoids suggests high levels of antioxidants. Therefore, measurement of skin cartenoid levels gives a good indication of your body’s overall antioxidant status and will help you determine whether or not you are consuming an adequate amount of antioxidant-containing nutrients.

Utilizing this technology enables us to closely monitor our patients who have undergone bariatric surgery to ensure that they are maintaining proper nutritional balance following surgery, an important component of post-surgical recovery and long-term success.

The biophotonic scanner is only one tool we offer to enhance our patients’ success. To learn more, register for a free seminar on surgical weight loss options.

We provide many tools for success – including bariatric surgery and psychological, dietary and exercise support – but it is up to the patient to make the behavioral changes that make success possible. Recognizing an important correlation for success, our bariatric psychologist works closely with patients prior to surgery to ensure that they are ready to meet the challenge.

Prior to surgery, all of our patients sign a “Binding Obesity Contract.” The contract, provided solely for the patient’s benefit, assists them in obtaining the best post-surgical results possible. In the contract, the patient agrees to:

1. Eat only to the point of feeling full or satisfied.
2. Avoid frozen, soft or melted ice cream, junk food and high-calorie liquids.
3. Have NO calories between meals. A set mealtime is the only time for calories.
4. Attend support group meetings after surgery.
5. See a counselor or psychiatrist if suggested.
6. Keep follow-up appointments at one week; at one, three, six, nine, 12 and 18 months; and annually thereafter.
7. Utilize vitamin and calcium supplements for life and be monitored with blood work and physical exams for life.
8. Exercise five days per week for 30 minutes beginning three weeks after surgery.

If you’re considering bariatric surgery and wondering if you’re ready for the procedure, look closely at the guidelines above and carefully consider whether you’re willing to make those changes for a lifetime.

Our patients overwhelmingly say that these changes are worth it to help usher in a new, healthy, vital life. If you’d like to explore your options for a new life through surgical weight loss, sign up for a free seminar.

In January, I was honored to be the first surgeon in East Tennessee to perform robotically assisted, laparoscopic gastric bypass surgery. Robotically assisted surgery offers fewer complications, shorter recovery times, less post-operative pain and a quicker return to normal activities than with the traditional laparoscopic method.

The surgeries are performed with the da Vinci Robotic Surgical System, a four-armed robot that mimics the hand and finger motions of the surgeon. It is a tremendous breakthrough in surgical technology that provides more surgical precision than typical laparoscopic surgery and is much less invasive than traditional “open” surgery.

The da Vinci offers these advantages:

• It gives the surgeon a better view by using high definition, three-dimensional imaging, rather than the two-dimensional view offered with standard laparoscopic surgery.
• The robotic mechanism offers more precision, greater magnification and easier manipulation.
• The robotic technology makes hand sewing much easier by allowing better access to some of the hard-to-reach abdominal and gastrointestinal areas. This allows us to perform the delicate and challenging bypass procedure with even greater precision resulting in the most effective surgical outcomes for our patients.

Recent studies at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center indicate robotically assisted surgery results in the least post operative complications for bariatric surgery and the quickest recovery times. We’re seeing similar results and expect that robotically assisted surgery will soon become the preferred technique for bariatric and many other surgical specialties.

Contact us today to see if you are a candidate for this revolutionary surgical method.

Morbid obesity, which is also termed “clinically severe obesity,” is typically defined as being more than 100 pounds overweight or having a BMI of 40 or higher. An estimated 5-10 million Americans are considered morbidly obese. Morbid obesity significantly increases the risk of one or more obesity-related health conditions or serious diseases – also known as co-morbidities – that result either in significant physical disability or even death.

Co-morbidities include medical problems like heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, certain cancers, osteoarthritis and sleep apnea.

Extreme obesity may also lead to a gradual decrease in the level of oxygen in your blood, a condition known as hypoxemia. Decreased blood oxygen levels and sleep apnea may cause you to feel sleepy during the day and may lead to high blood pressure and pulmonary hypertension. In extreme cases, particularly if the condition is left untreated, patients may suffer right-sided heart failure and ultimately death.

According to the National Institutes of Health Consensus Report, morbid obesity is a serious disease and must be treated as such. It is a chronic disease, meaning that its symptoms build slowly over an extended period of time.

If you suffer from health conditions associated with your weight, don’t delay seeking treatment. Contact our office today to find out whether weight loss surgery may be an option to help you lead a healthier and longer life.

To sign up for a free seminar on surgical weight loss options, click here.