VCU faculty team up to study the effects of bariatric surgery.
Anyone who has struggled to drop a few pounds has most likely heard that the best way to lose weight is through a combination of a healthy diet and regular physical activity. But for some, this simply isn’t enough — weight-loss surgery becomes a necessary option.
Gastric bypass, which physically changes the digestive system to reduce the amount of food that can be eaten and digested, is the favored bariatric surgery in the U.S. because it is safer and has fewer complications than other weight-loss surgeries.
Enter Ronald K. Evans, Ph.D., and Dale S. Bond, Ph.D., both assistant professors in the Department of Health and Human Performance at Virginia Commonwealth University. Working with gastric bypass patients of James W. Maher, M.D., and John Kellum, M.D., in the VCU Department of Surgery, Evans and Bond are researching the relationship between physical activity and gastric bypass surgery success.
Evans and Bond are examining patients’ exercise behaviors, physical fitness, quality of life and heart health. The examinations will take place about two weeks before the operation and one, three, six and 12 months following surgery.
“It’s easy to say exercise is good for you, but putting it into practice is harder,” said Lois Yancy, a gastric bypass patient participating in the research project. “I can walk uphill now.” Yancy had bariatric surgery in January 2006 and in just a few months experienced positive changes.
“We also are interested in identifying proactive motivational factors that underlie a patient’s decision to initiate and continue engagement in physical activity before and after surgery,” said Bond. The one-year study is funded in part with a grant from the VCU School of Education. Evans and Bond presented their preliminary findings at the annual meeting of the American Society of Bariatric Surgery in San Francisco, Calif.
