endoscopic surgery

CDC Reports the U.S. is Supersized

Robert Cucin MD JD MBA bariatric surgery, Diabetes, metabolic syndrome, obesity, technology , , ,

The CDC reports that 7 out of 10 Americans are overweight or obese and almost 4 out of 10 Americans are obese.

There is an underlying pattern of racial and ethnic disparity.  Almost half of Hispanics and blacks are obese with obesity rates for 2015-2016 of 47% and 46.8% for adult Latinos and non-Hispanic blacks respectively.

Obesity is most readily defined by Body Mass Index (“BMI”) which takes a person’s weight in kilograms and divides it by their height in meters squared.  For adults, those with a BMI between 18.5 and 24.9 are considered to have a normal weight.  A BMI between 25 and 29.9 is considered overweight and anything above 30 is deemed obese.  The NIH provides a calculator for you to determine your own BMI.

It is apparent to anyone following these statistics or even just walking down the street that current efforts to control the obesity problem have failed to reduce obesity rates.

We have learned that visceral fat or “belly” fat within the abdomen hijacks the metabolism by secreting the cytokine resistin.  This cellular hormone antagonizes insulin, blocking sugar from entering cells or reaching the brain.  It saps energy, shuts down the metabolism, causes brain fog, and hunger.    Cellular hormones are secreted directly into the portal circulation and the body’s protein factory, the liver, is commandeered to produce bad lipids which cause strokes and heart attacks.  Mesenteric fat thickness is closely correlated with carotid intimal narrowing.  Belly fat doesn’t just shorten your life, it reduces its quality with sleep apnea, gastric reflux, type 2 Diabetes mellitus, heart attacks, strokes, autoimmune diseases, and cancers.

New technology facilitates a new approach to the problem.  Rather than just starving this belly fat and letting it remain in place as do current bariatric surgical alternatives, removing it this visceral fat in a minimally invasive procedure may prove to be a simpler, more direct and permanent, safer and highly effective alternative.  Endoscopic visceral lipectomy could be just be what the doctor ordered.   It is clearly time to seek new approaches and fresh solutions as obesity rates continue to rise.

 

BioSculpture Technology, Inc. has an important new patent issue.

Robert Cucin MD JD MBA technology , , , , , , ,

January 8, 2013 – BioSculpture Technology’s licensed patent portfolio is strengthened by the issuance of U.S. Patent 8,348,929 B2 – Method of and Apparatus for Treating Abdominal Obesity and Metabolic Syndrome in Human Patients.

2/3 of the U.S. population is overweight and 1/3 is frankly obese.   43% of minorities are overweight today and 43% of the general population isf forecast to be obese in 10 years.  As 80% of obese patients develop type 2 Diabetes mellitus which is the leading cause of renal failure and a frequent cause of blindness, obesity is at the core of America’s burgeoning health care cost crisis.

This patent teaches a method and apparatus for endoscopic removal of visceral fat in a minimally invasive procedure that does not involve cutting into the bowel or leaving behind a foreign body.  As such it has the potential of replacing gastric restrictive surgeries (Lap Band or gastric sleeve procedures) or intestinal bypass procedures (roux-en-Y) with a less invasive procedure less fraught with potential complications and sequelae.  Insulin regulating drugs and hypertensive medication may not be needed as the metabolic syndrome is altered.

Visceral fat is a noxious hormone factory which “latches” the body into an abnormally low metabolic rate, an insulin resistant, hungry condition with inflammatory cytokines promoting heart attacks, strokes, autoimmune diseases and cancers.  Removal of small amounts of visceral fat helps the body return to a higher metabolic rate, have lowered insulin resistance, and the patient be less hungry.  A “multiplier” effect may follow with the loss of 7-10x as much body fat.  And the procedure may be repeated as needed without the risk of creating nutritional cripples.

At the very least this patent paves the way for less invasive alternatives which may supplement current modalities.