Presenter: Jacqueline Jacques, ND

Original Date: March 17, 2019

Surgery for the treatment of obesity (bariatric surgery) was started in the United States in the 1950s and has evolved to include multiple procedures and devices over the past 60+ years. The earliest procedures, while effective for their primary goal, became infamous for creating severe malnutrition and toxic overgrowth of bacteria in the bypassed part of the small intestine. This bacteria proved so toxic in some patients that it led to liver failure and death.

While that procedure was abandoned, others have replaced it including gastric bypass, duodenal switch, sleeve gastrectomy, and the mini bypass (omega loop). While none has proven to be as toxic as the original surgery, we have learned a lot along the way about how various surgical alternations to the gut can alter not only anatomy, but create changes in the microbiome that impact nutrition, metabolism, weight loss, and other aspects of physiology. This knowledge can help inform clinicians who are supporting surgical weight loss patients, and can also teach us some valuable lessons that apply to SIBO in non-surgical patients.

1.5 General CEUs approved by OBNM