Local Physician Becomes New Member of National Medical Weight Loss Society

Sioux Falls, SD (January 2007) – Robert S. Wenger, MD, of the McGreevy Clinic Avera and Program Physician for the Avera Center for Medical Nutrition, has recently become a member of the American Society of Bariatric Physicians (ASBP).

ASBP, founded in 1950, is a national professional medical society of licensed doctors of medicine and osteopathy who have a special interest in bariatric medicine—the medical treatment of overweight and obesity and its related conditions. Bariatricians normally employ a combination of proper diet and nutrition, appropriate exercise, behavior modification, and when indicated, prescription anti-obesity. Through an extensive program of continuing medical education and publications, ASBP exposes its members to the most recent knowledge and developments in treating obesity and its associated conditions to ensure that the physicians remain on the cutting edge of the technology used in treating the overweight patient.

The Avera Center for Medical Nutrition offers a clinically-proven weight loss program called the OPTIFAST® Program. The primary goal of the OPTIFAST Program is to help patients improve their health through weight loss. The OPTIFAST Program involves specialty care of a multidisciplinary team to integrate the medical, nutritional, behavioral, and exercise aspects of weight loss therapy. The OPTIFAST Program includes a full meal replacement diet in the active weight loss phase, which typically lasts 12 weeks. This is followed by a six-week gradual transition phase to self-prepared foods. This is followed by a long-term weight management phase to assist patients in sustaining their weight loss and behavior changes.

According to the Center for Disease Control, more than 57% of American adults are overweight with a Body Mass Index (BMI) between 25 and 30. Nearly one-quarter of U.S. adults are obese with a BMI >30. From 1991 to 1998, obesity increased in every state of the United States, in both genders, and across all races/ethnicities, age groups, educational levels, and smoking statuses.

Click here for more information on the OPTIFAST Program offered through the Avera Center for Medical Nutrition.