What Are Comorbidities? - Dr. Fobi (VIDEO)

Dr. Fobi:
Comorbidity just means the other complications that come from being overweight. Medically we treat morbid obesity because it has comorbidities. Overweight, severe obesity is almost the second most common cause of preventable death in America. It’s right up there with smoking because it increases the incidents of coronary artery disease. It increases the incidents of diabetes, hypertension, arthritis of the weight bearing joints, headaches, irregular periods, back problems, gall bladder disease, heartburns, and the list goes on and on… chronic leg ulcers and all those things.

So when we get patients to lose weight all these problems disappear. This is the beautiful thing about weight loss surgery. With one operation you can cure about ten different things. Unfortunately, most people don’t come to us because of these medical reasons. They come to us because of the psychosocial impact of obesity. The patients come to us because society doesn’t accept the fat person.

The patients come to us because they cannot walk into the store and put on a dress, buy off the rack. They have to go to special stores. They come to us because they cannot sit down and cross their legs like the average person. They cannot get into a plane and fit in a seat. They don’t go to a movie theater because the seats are too small. These are the reasons that the patients come to us. We call them daily acts of living - they are limited. They don’t want to go out because they are shy. They become withdrawn and food becomes their companion.

So they just get overweight and get bigger and bigger and eat more and get bigger and bigger. So they come to us because of the psychosocial impact of the weight, the physical impact. However, by us treating them we are also able to take care of those comorbidities. If you know that 9 out of 10 people who have type-2 diabetes have that because of obesity, if we could eradicate the obesity then we would be eradicating 90% of those with type-2 diabetes.

Dr. Mathias A.L. Fobi, M.D., F.A.C.S.:
Dr. Mathias A.L. Fobi, is an internationally recognized bariatric surgeon, who has changed the shape of Hollywood heavyweights such as Etta James and American Idol’s Randy Jackson. MAL, as he is known among friends, was born in Nkwen, a small village in Cameroon, West Africa. He is a member of the first batch, class of 1965, 0f Sacred Heart College in Mankon Bamenda in Cameroon. He came to the USA through the African Scholarship Program for American Universities (ASPAU) in 1966. This was a scholarship program that was inaugurated by President Kennedy along with the Peace Corps Program.

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