Our first guest for season 8, Dr. Shani Belgrave, MD, FACS, FASMBS, Atlanta’s Bariatric Surgeon and founder of Oneka Bariatrics and Wellness, discusses bariatric surgery, obesity management, and how that fits within the Take Good Care Pillars.
Transcript
Dr. Mironda Williams:
Welcome to Take Good Care Podcast.
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
An endeavor that grew out of our love for obstetrics and gynecology.
Dr. Karen Greene:
Our aim and mission is to serve as a source of vital information for women of all races, ages, and walks in life.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
I am Dr. Mironda Williams.
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
I am Dr. Deanna Guthrie.
Dr. Karen Greene:
And I am Dr. Karen Greene.
All:
Welcome to our show.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
Welcome to this episode of Take Good Care Podcast. I’m Dr. Mironda Williams.
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
I’m Dr. Deanna Guthrie.
Dr. Karen Greene:
And I am Dr. Karen Greene.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
We are so excited today that we have a guest with us on today’s podcast, Dr. Shani Belgrave, who is a bariatric surgeon here in our area, as well as a wellness provider, and she’s going to help share with us a wealth of information. But before we get started with that, Dr. Belgrave, do you mind just giving us and your audience a little background about who you are, where you’re from, how long you’ve been in practice, where your practice is located?
Dr. Shani Belgrave:
Sure. It’s so good to be on the podcast. Thank you so much for the invitation. So as you said, I am Dr. Shani Belgrave. I also go by the Atlanta Bariatric Surgeon, and I’m the founder of Oneka Bariatrics and Wellness located here in Sandy Springs, Georgia. A little bit about me, I grew up in Silver Spring, Maryland. I did my undergraduate and medical training at Brown University. I did my general surgery training at the University of Maryland, a minimally invasive and bariatric fellowship at the University of Washington. And I’ve been in practice since 2016. So I am very excited to be here and I’m very passionate about looking at health from a perspective of transformation, which is why I enjoy metabolic and weight loss surgery.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
Awesome. Awesome. That just flows in so much with us. With this season of our podcast, we’ve adopted some pillars that we’re calling Take Good Care Pillars to just help us as we ask for additional experts to come into our virtual space, but also to try to hone in on that whole thing about transformation and taking care of the whole woman in our case as gynecologists. So those pillars that we are really focusing in on with this season of Take Good Care are, number one, body care, which of course flows in very well with your area of expertise, mind and emotional care, spiritual care, financial care, as well as life and relationship care. So we’re excited to have you with us. And I think Dr. Greene is going to kick off some things with some reflections and a couple of questions to get us going.
Dr. Karen Greene:
Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Williams. Dr. Belgrave, when myself and Dr. Guthrie met you, I think you specifically talked about treating the whole woman. And I guess from a surgeon’s point of view, it’s nice to hear that perspective. And so I wanted to find out exactly what is your philosophy when you’re treating the whole patient?
Dr. Shani Belgrave:
Thanks so much, Dr. Greene. My philosophy is that people, especially from the perspective of medicine, we’re more than just our organ systems, that in order to help someone feel better and be healthy, we have to look at them in totality, not just their physical wellbeing, but their mental health and how they’re doing overall, because if you do an operation or you give someone a medication and you’re not accounting for what’s going on at home, what’s going on at work, why is it that you’re only sleeping four hours, you can’t really make any real progress and get any real lasting transformation.
Dr. Karen Greene:
Awesome. Right.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
Dr. Greene, I was so excited to talk to Dr. Belgrave. You know what I forgot to do?
Dr. Karen Greene:
Turn on our lights.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
I got to let the people know that we are live and on the air. Please carry on, Dr. Greene.
Dr. Karen Greene:
In that vein and just talking about the whole woman, because we often say that for gynecology, you’re not just a vagina, but what is the best piece of advice you’ve ever received personally or professionally?
Dr. Shani Belgrave:
I think that the best advice that I’ve received is that there are no limits and to keep going because I think that it’s important to dream big and to really try to live your life to the fullest. And in order to do that, I think the biggest thing is mindset because just by changing your mindset, you can really change your trajectory in both your personal and professional life. And so that’s what I really focus on, even with patients, is trying to encourage people to build resilience so that you’re always moving forward.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
That’s amazing. Dr. Guthrie.
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
We took on a rebranding a few years ago and we have just recently realigned our mission and vision and values. And so it was just so important what you said earlier about treating the whole patient. It just aligns with our mission where we say we are grounded in empathy, strengthened by education, built on connection to create a safe space for women. In that vein, what is one of the best or more memorable parts of your medical career that goes along with that?
Dr. Shani Belgrave:
Yeah. Well, it’s funny because looking back, I’ve experienced some significant career highs where I felt like, wow, the things I’ve dreamt of have come to pass, and that includes recently opening my own practice. But what really stands out the most isn’t a particular event. I think it’s really those moments where patients reach out randomly and say, “Hey, I’m down 150 pounds and I’m feeling amazing.” And it’s like that feedback, it just makes me feel so encouraged and it just reminds me that all the work that goes into providing care, I mean, that really is the highlight. I mean, that will make my whole week. Getting that DM or getting that comment on a YouTube video, I’m like, “Yes, that’s why we’re doing this.”
Dr. Mironda Williams:
Awesome.
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
Now, weight loss has its myths and things. What is a commonly held belief in weight loss that you don’t necessarily agree with, something that’s commonly said that…
Dr. Shani Belgrave:
I had to shake my head because one thing that’s said commonly that I can’t stand is when people attach a certain shame to people that are on a weight loss journey, where comments will be made, things like they didn’t even need to do all that. All they needed to do was just eat a little less-
Dr. Mironda Williams:
Will power.
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
Push back on the table.
Dr. Shani Belgrave:
Yeah, exactly. It’s frustrating because obesity is a chronic disease and people who have high blood pressure and diabetes, they aren’t shamed or stigmatized for being on a medication or for being a part of a program. But I find that many people who are on a weight loss journey, whether it be with surgery or with medication, that there’s a lot of stigma still about that. And so I think it makes it harder for people to feel comfortable seeking treatment for obesity.
Dr. Karen Greene:
Most definitely. Even some of the… I’ve heard advertisements where they will send, “We’ll send you the weight loss things to your home so no one else will know that you’re on this weight loss journey,” because that’s essentially what it’s saying. And to be shamed for that is just not good.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
No.
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
It makes you feel like when you’re using an alternative method, that somehow you are weak, that you had to resort to this choice.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
I really identify with that because I recently gone through a weight loss journey on my own using some assistance to medications and some other things. I lead a very healthy lifestyle, try to do all the things, but life is life, right? And I have certain genetic predispositions that can make things difficult. So when you’re talking to your patients and patients are coming into you seeking assistance with things on their weight loss journey, how do you explain obesity to your patients and where bariatric surgery may or may not be an option for them? How do you start that conversation?
Dr. Shani Belgrave:
Well, I always like to start off with finding out from them what they have experienced because many patients, they’re coming to you because they’ve already identified that their weight is an issue and they’ve tried different things and they need to do something because they’re not able to sustain their weight loss. And so I try to first get an understanding of what have you tried? What have you done? And then I always try to look at it from the medical perspective so that people don’t feel that they are being judged. And so the term obesity, I explained that it is just a medical definition. That’s all it is, and it is describing having excess body fat. We know scientifically that when you have a certain amount of excess body fat, the fat is not dormant. It’s actually secreting chemicals that cause a chronic state of inflammation in the body, and that this inflammation is what leads to a whole host of ailments, including high blood pressure, diabetes, and certain cancers.
So I like to focus on the fact that this is a medical issue so that people can open up and understand, you’re right, this is a medical problem. And that opens the door to us talk about, okay, well, what are some treatments then since this is in fact a medical issue?
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
Awesome. And with body types, how do you counsel people? Because not everybody is going to be a size six or tall and slender or curvy. How do you have that discussion with a patient as far as expectations?
Dr. Shani Belgrave:
Absolutely. I always try to explain that what we are working on, it has nothing to do with aesthetics. I try to make that clear because some patients will say, “Well, I want to have a certain amount of this or that,” and they’re afraid of losing too much weight. And so the way I counsel patients is that body mass index, or BMI, is not a perfect tool, but that it’s a number derived from height and weight. And in most instances, a body mass index of 30 corresponds to obesity. And so I explain to patients that depending on how you’re shaped, we do have to factor that in because women oftentimes tend to carry their weight more in the buttocks, hips, and thighs, which is not as detrimental as when the weight is carried more in the abdomen. So I do explain those things, but still, I do try to explain that even though BMI is not a perfect tool, that we should still try to shoot to get weight within a certain range for their height. So that’s how I discuss that with patients.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
Yeah, that’s so great. I love your perspective and how you’re forming things in your choice of words because one of the things we always try to do as well with our patients is we don’t want to inadvertently put up barriers to conversation and to having patients being open and feeling comfortable sharing whatever they’re sharing, as well as being open to whatever treatment options, whatever kinds of things we may suggest for them to do because they feel like we really heard them, they’ve been seen. And just having this conversation with you, I just love how you are being very intentional about making sure people understand we’re dealing with medical issues. We have goals that are going to help optimize your health. It’s not just about what you look like or what perception you think you should look like. So I so appreciate that. But can you also now start giving us some ideas about what are the different kinds of bariatric surgical options that may be available to patients? How do those things differentiate?
Dr. Shani Belgrave:
Absolutely. Right now, the two most commonly performed weight loss operations are the sleeve gastrectomy and the gastric bypass. There are others, but by and large, those are the two most common, and the surgeries are very effective. Bariatric surgery is the most durable and definitive treatment for obesity that we have. And so I always like to talk to patients about that, depending on their body mass index. Obesity starts at 30, and so I think a good time to really start at least having a consultation and discussing weight loss surgery are for patients that have a body mass index of 40 or greater, even if they don’t have a health-related problem, because we know at that weight they’re going to be predisposed to developing health-related problems. And then for other patients that have a body mass index of 35 or greater, especially if they have certain weight-related conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and sleep apnea.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
Awesome. Awesome. Now, how do patients find you? So do you just work basically on referral basis? We will be sending people to you, but how can people find you? How is it that you are building your patient base so that patients who have an interest and need can do that?
Dr. Shani Belgrave:
Oh, thank you so much. I am letting people know that I am out here by, like you said, word of mouth and referrals, but also, patients are finding me on Google and from friends and family. The practice is located in Sandy Springs, and I’m very active on social media and on YouTube. So that’s another way that patients find me as well. But you many times don’t have to have a referral unless it’s an insurance requirement. You can always just give us a call or you can now book online. I now have online direct booking options right on the website.
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
Oh, good.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
Perfect. Can you give us that website information? And if you have an Instagram, YouTube, what are some of the ways that people can connect with you other than just Googling Dr. Shani Belgrave?
Dr. Shani Belgrave:
Yes. The practice is www.onekabariatrics.com. And Oneka is O-N-E-K-A. So it’s onekabariatrics.com. That’s the practice. Our phone is 470-250-0035. I’m also on YouTube as Dr. Shani Belgrave and Instagram as Dr. Shani Bellgrave.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
That’s amazing. That’s wonderful. So we will definitely, as we’re coming up on a close for this episode, we’re going to continue this conversation. So please, audience, if you love what you’ve heard so far, make sure you check in and tune in to us for the next episode with Dr. Belgrave. She’s given you all of her contact information and we’ll make sure we tag that in all of our social media platforms. So please reach out to her.
Ladies, anything else before we wrap up this segment?
Dr. Karen Greene:
I guess I just had one question. You have a symbol on your website. It looks like a Lotus. Is that what it is?
Dr. Shani Belgrave:
It’s a Lotus.
Dr. Karen Greene:
It is a lotus. That’s what I thought.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
We have interesting lotus for various and certain reasons. We’ll tell you later. But I was also… The name of your practice, does that signify anything in particular? How did you come up with the name for your practice?
Dr. Shani Belgrave:
Yes. Oneka is a name. It has roots in both African and Native American culture. In African culture, it’s been associated with value, gift, and love. And in Native American culture, it’s been associated with water. So that’s why I named the practice Oneka Bariatrics and Wellness, because this is a practice that’s all about transformation and becoming the best version of yourself or the ultimate you. So I wanted a brand that was going to be aspirational and also placing importance on love, and in this case, loving yourself, and us as a practice, providing love to our patients.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
That’s awesome.
Dr. Karen Greene:
That’s wonderful.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
Well, I think that’s a great place to end this particular conversation. We’re going to pick up with Dr. Belgrave in some different episodes. So please make sure audience that you stay tuned to Take Good Care Podcast with Rosa Gynecology. That’s rosagynecology.com. You’ll be able to find this episode, as well as previous episodes and all of our upcoming episodes of Dr. Belgrave there, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram. So until we meet again with the next episode of Take Good Care Podcast, I’m Dr. Mironda Williams.
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
I’m Dr. Deanna Guthrie.
Dr. Karen Greene:
And I am Dr. Karen Greene. Take good care.