Dr. Rene G. Jaso joins Physician Specialty Clinic at MCHD
By: Jose G. Landa, Copyright 2014, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc.
Dr. Rene G. Jaso, Board Certified in Internal Medicine and General Surgery and a Center of Excellence Bariatric Surgeon, has joined the Maverick County Hospital District’s (MCHD) Physician Specialty Clinic at 3406 Bob Rogers Drive in Eagle Pass, Texas, announced Terri Contreras, Chief Executive Officer.
Dr. Jaso and the MCHD Physician Specialty Clinic are implementing a life-saving surgical procedure to treat Metabolism Syndrome for Maverick County residents.
What is Metabolic Syndrome? It is a disorder of energy utilization and storage, diagnosed by a co-occurrence of three out of five of the following medical conditions: abdominal (central) obesity, elevated blood pressure, elevated fasting plasma glucose, high serum triglycerides, and low high-density cholesterol (HDL) levels.
Metabolic Syndrome increases the risk of developing cardiovascular disease, particularly heart failure, and diabetes. Studies have shown the prevalence of metabolic syndrome in the United States at an estimated 34% of the adult population, and that prevalence increases with age.
“Throughout the United States we have an epidemic of overweightness, also known as obesity. We have gone from an incidence rate of 15% to 18% to over the last 20 years it has increased to an incidence rate of over 32% in any given state. It’s become a global epidemic,” stated Dr. Jaso in an exclusive interview with the Eagle Pass Business Journal.
“It’s probably one of the most devastating illnesses to occur globally. The United States happens to be the leading country in the world in terms of obesity,” said Dr. Jaso.
Dr. Jaso stated that he feels that it’s related to a number of issues such as our environment, technology success, food consumption and other contributing issues as well.
These types of contributing factors may be the lead to the development of metabolism syndrome (insulin resistance).
“It manifests with Obesity, Diabetes, hypertension , high cholesterol, reflux, tooth decay , thinking disabilities, eye, and kidney adrenal changes leading to a decrease of the number of healthy years that we live,” added Dr. Jaso.
“The Lynch Pin has to do with the kind of food we are eating. And that kind of food happens to be sugar. Sugar is an addicting substance. There has been the confusion in the literature promoted by the medical community as of the 1980’s, most recently. We got hung up with the idea that if we ate fat it would raise the fat in your blood and that it would result in weight gain. When in reality, de novo or new fat is formed from sugar. The sugar of life is glucose, what we are eating is table sugar which is equal parts glucose and fructose. Fructose presents the body with a huge overload of energy that requires a lot of work to metabolize that energy and you get byproducts that are inflammatory. That causes changes and damage to in-organs, kidneys, eyes, liver, and the pancreas that results in Diabetes , Hypertension, retinal disease , kidney damage that results in Dialysis and other health damaging issues,” noted Dr. Jaso.
The United States Center for Disease Control (CDC) published a study showing that within the Hispanic community there is between a 40% to 70 % obesity rate, causing many health problems for Hispanics.
“In reality, it’s a problem throughout the United States, not just Hispanics,” said Dr. Jaso.
Obesity is an issue that has been growing throughout the ages as humans went from being hunters and gatherers to planting (agrarians) or farmers. “When that happened we changed our diets. Before we were primarily scavenging and eating more protein and fat and minimal carbohydrates. When we went to becoming farmers we switched that role. We had less fat and protein and more carbohydrates that we could plant and that over the years refining that process. Within the last 200 to 300 years there has been a rise of the consumption of sugar per individual,” noted Dr. Jaso.
Dr. Jaso postulated that humans have increased the amount of consumption of sugars due to the introduction of fructose, which is a ketonic monosaccharide found in many plants, where it is often bonded to glucose to form the disaccharidesucrose. Fructose is frequently derived from sugar cane, sugar beets, and corn. All forms of fructose, including fruits and juices, are commonly added to foods and drinks for palatability and taste enhancement, and for browning of some foods, such as baked goods.
“You now have the Kelloggs, Rice Crispies, and Krispy Kremes of the world getting a commodity at a cheaper price that makes their product taste sweeter and people go after that,” said Dr. Jaso. However, fructose makes food products sweeter to humans and addictive.
Dr. Jaso explained that the metabolic structure of fructose is almost the same as another carbohydrate, Ethanol (Alcohol). “You take that over a period of time and it leads to in-organ damage,” said Dr. Jaso.
Dr. Jaso noted in part obesity has to do with genetics and that it is part of the variables to the issues but that the huge variable that we are dealing with today is the availability of cheaper foods that are altered with a high content of cheap carbohydrates and eating fructose instead of glucose.
“We make it worse by refining that food by taking the fiber out. We take the fiber out because we can then grow the shelf life of that product. In doing that, we present the body with a huge load of sugar that the body now has to process. Processes that our bodies are not mapped out to do,” added Dr. Jaso.
“If you look at your weight gain issue, the first thing you do is to look at your sugar intake. None of us need sugar the way we are getting it today. If it has over 2 grams of sugar do not eat it,” said Dr. Jaso. Humans are over-consuming sugar which causes obesity and many health consequences.
Dr. Jaso will now offer his laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy, Roux-En-Y gastric bypass, Anti-reflux, metabolic, and bariatric surgery services in Eagle Pass through the MCHD’s Physician Specialty Clinic. Dr. Jaso is from San Antonio, Texas. He is a graduate of the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine, completed his Internal Medicine Residency at the Mayo Graduate School, and is a Board Certified Internist and General Surgeon with more than 35 years of clinical experience including humanitarian and military service(retired U.S. Army/Air Force).
To schedule an appointment with Dr. Jaso, please have your physician refer you to him or call the Physician Specialist Clinic at (830) 757-4900.
