If you're more than 100 pounds overweight, bariatric surgery might be the answer you're looking for to help lose the weight and maintain a healthier life. The professionals at Galesburg Cottage Hospital's Weight Loss Surgical Center can help you determine if this approach to weight loss is right for you. Weight loss by conventional therapies, such as diet, exercise, behavioral modification or by anti-obesity medications, have a less than one percent long-term success rate. Weight-loss surgery may be the best option for these individuals when it comes to losing weight and keeping it off.

Criteria for Surgical Candidates

To be a candidate for weight-loss surgery, you must:

• Have a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 40 or greater or be 100 pounds or more overweight from your ideal body weight
• If BMI is between 35-40, have at least two significant associated illnesses such as diabetes, hypertension, arthritis and sleep apnea
• Be between the ages of 18 and 65
• Not be drug or alcohol dependent or have at least one year of sobriety
• Have documented attempts to lose weight medically
• If you smoke, have made every effort to stop
• Have a personal ongoing commitment to improve health and lifestyle

Banding surgery advantages:

• Reduced surgical trauma and pain
• Less invasive for the abdominal wall
• Shorter hospitalization than standard surgery
• Fully reversible
• A full time bariatric nurse available before and after surgery
• Monthly weight loss support group meetings with other bariatric surgical patients

Find out more about the GCH Surgical Weight Loss Center, to make an appointment with the bariatric nurse or to join our weight loss support group, contact Cottage's Bariatric Case Manager, Barb Parkinson, RN, at 309-345-0393.