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What is obesity?
Obesity is the accumulation of excessive fat that exceeds the body’s physical standards. Today one-hundred and twenty-seven million
Americans are overweight, and sixty-million are obese. An estimated nine million of those, are considered morbidly obese. Obesity
becomes “morbid” when it reaches the point of increasing the risk and probability of one or more obesity-related health conditions or
diseases that can result in either physical limitations or death. Morbid obesity is typically defined as being one-hundred pounds or
more over a person’s ideal body weight, or as having a body mass index (BMI) of 40 or more. Resulting health conditions can include,
but are not limited to, diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease, high cholesterol, arthritis of weight-bearing joints, depression,
sleep apnea or other respiratory problems, heartburn, infertility, menstrual irregularities, and urinary stress incontinence.
The causes of obesity are multiple and complex. Despite common opinion, it is not simply a result of overeating. Research has
shown that in many cases a significant cause of morbid obesity is genetic. It is important to understand that all current medical inter-ventions
in regard to weight-related health, including weight loss surgery, should not be considered medical “cures.” Instead, surgical
procedures are tools which attempt to reduce the effects of excessive weight, and the serious physical, emotional, and social consequences
of morbid obesity.
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MIMIS and Dr. Howard McCollister are approved as a Bariatric Surgery Center of Excellence by the American Society for Bariatric and Metabolic Surgery and the Surgical Review Board. The Centers of Excellence designation is a result of a rigorous review and evaluation process. It is a tribute to MIMIS’s efforts to foster and maintain the highest standards and quality of care for every patient in our weight loss program. 
