More Life in Your Years

We human beings like numbers, so it's only natural to focus on the length of a person's life as a measure of health success. Moreover, there's no getting around the fact the recent statistics bolstering the contention that bariatric surgery extends patients' lifespan is very good news. At the same time, as anyone who has close relatives who are getting on in years is keenly aware, it's not just the length of a person's life that matters, it's the quality.

Indeed, to paraphrase the old saying, the benefits of a truly healthy lifestyle are not just about the years in a patients' life, but the life they enjoy in those years. That's an important distinction because medical science has actually had a great deal of success in keeping people alive well into their later years, but we all know the difference between people who are leading full and happy lives well into their seventies, eighties and nineties (and sometimes beyond) but we also see people who are just barely existing in their later years.

From the pain of arthritis to the threat of heart and kidney failure, the diseases that are exacerbated or outright caused by obesity may or may not lead to an early death, but they definitely can make a person's later years a great deal more painful and less joyful. At Dr. Feiz & Associates, we encourage severely obese patients to consider a weight loss procedure not merely as a means to extend their lifespan, but to help make sure that they are healthy enough to enjoy those additional years.