Bariatrics

Bariatrics is the branch of medicine that deals with the causes, prevention, and treatment of obesity.

Bariatric patients
There are many detrimental health effects of obesity: individuals with a body mass index exceeding a healthy range have a much greater risk of medical issues. These include heart disease, diabetes mellitus, many types of cancer, asthma, obstructive sleep apnea, and chronic musculoskeletal problems. There is also a focus on the correlation between obesity and mortality.

Overweight and obese individuals, including children, may find it difficult to lose weight on their own. It is common for dieters to have tried fad diets only to find that they gain weight or return to their original weight after ceasing the diet. Some improvement in patient psychological health is noted after bariatric surgery.

Methods of treatment
Although diet, exercise, behavior therapy, and anti-obesity drugs are first-line treatments, medical therapy for severe obesity has limited short-term success and very poor long-term success. Weight loss surgery generally results in greater weight loss than conventional treatment and leads to improvements in quality of life and obesity-related diseases such as hypertension and diabetes mellitus. The combination of approaches used may be tailored to each patient. Bariatric treatments in youth must be considered with great caution and with other conditions that may not have to be considered in adults.

Techniques used in bariatrics include bioelectrical impedance analysis, a method to measure body fat percentage.