Weight Loss Specialists

The physicians and staff of UnityPoint Clinic | Weight Loss | West Des Moines are committed to effective weight loss management. From surgical weight loss (bariatric surgery) to simply learning to eat healthy, our dedicated team has the experience to help you reach your weight loss goals.

Reach Your Weight Loss Goals

UnityPoint Clinic | Weight Loss providers and staff are committed to the effective lifelong treatment of morbid obesity. Surgical weight loss is not an easy, quick fix for obesity. It is the beginning of a lifelong commitment to health. Dedication to proper diet, exercise and mental health is crucial to obtaining the best results. Surgery is a tool that allows the bariatric team to guide our patients back to health. If you are ready - we are here to help!

Our Comprehensive Approach = You meeting your Goal

Our weight loss surgery team, each with many years of experience in dealing with overweight and morbidly obese patients, includes a full time dietitian, psychiatric counselor, nurse coordinator, physician assistant and surgeon. We feel that expert care is only available with this comprehensive team approach, and we are committed to providing weight loss surgery in the safest manner possible.

Weight Loss Surgery May Be An Answer to Many Chronic Conditions

Excessive weight affects your life - how you look, how you feel, and the things you can or can't do. Obesity can also affect how long you live. Carrying excess weight increases your risk of developing diabetes, heart disease, cancer and other life-threatening medical conditions. But, it doesn't have to - studies show significant weight loss may improve, or even resolve, these conditions. 

Diabetes and Obesity

Diabetes and obesity are intimately connected. Almost 90 percent of people newly diagnosed with diabetes are overweight or obese, according to the American Diabetes Association. An obese person has double the risk of developing diabetes. A severely obese person has ten times the risk. Type 2 diabetes is the form of the disease most closely linked to obesity. Approximately 90 percent of all diabetics in the United States are type 2 diabetics.

Complications of diabetes include heart disease, blindness, nerve damage and kidney damage. People with diabetes can lose limbs from nerve damage and/or foot problems that can ultimately lead to ulcers and infections. 

Doctors don't know exactly how bariatric surgery resolves diabetes. Questions remain regarding the role that weight loss surgery can play in treating, and potentially curing, diabetes. There is a consensus developing that surgery should be offered much earlier in the treatment of diabetes - before complications arise - when diabetes is first diagnosed or down the road, when complications have already begun to arise.