Bariatric Specialist

In 2009, Brian N. Sabowitz, M.D., joined New Dimensions Weight Loss Surgery in San Antonio to begin developing one of the first comprehensive medically supervised weight management programs in the country.

Dr. Sabowitz (or “Doctor B” as the New Dimensions team calls him) began his professional career not as a physician but as an engineer. From Boston University, he received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in bio-medical engineering. Upon graduation, he moved to Houston where he accepted a position as a project engineer at the Johnson Space Center. There, he designed and tested spaceflight hardware used in life-science experiments aboard NASA’s space shuttle fleet. He enjoyed flying so much that he entered into the pilot training program through the Massachusetts Air National Guard.

To meet the physical fitness requirements prior to entering the program, Dr. Sabowitz lost 40 pounds. However, despite constant efforts, he struggled to maintain his weight and was eventually forced to abandon his dream of being a fighter pilot.

IIn 1992, Dr. Sabowitz began his medical education at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. After medical school, he moved to Phoenix, where he completed a residency program in Internal Medicine culminating with his Board Certification in 1999. He then opened an internal medicine practice in Lake Havasu City, Arizona.

Dr. Sabowitz’s struggle with obesity had continued throughout medical school, and in 2003, his own physician recommended medications to control blood pressure and cholesterol. “My doctor told me if I would just lose weight I wouldn’t need all these medications,” he says. “The irony of the situation immediately struck me. Here I was telling patients to lose weight or go on more medications, and now my own physician was telling me the same thing. My response was to ask my doctor, ‘How do I do that?’ She had no answer for me. “

Dr. Sabowitz researched his options and was disappointed to find that few physicians were willing to help. In fact, his own health insurance would not cover any treatment. In 2005, he decided to undergo gastric bypass surgery. “It changed my life,” he says. “In fact, it gave me my life back.”

Realizing that some patients did not meet the requirements for weight loss surgery or simply could not afford it, Dr. Sabowitz founded the Arizona Medical Weight Loss Clinic to offer patients an alternative to surgical weight loss and to help those who underwent surgery to optimize their results. “Something very bizarre started to happen,” he says. “Instead of putting people on more and more medication, I was recommending that they stop medications. Instead of getting calls from the ER in the middle of the night, patients were calling me because their blood pressure was too low or their blood sugar was dropping too much on their previously adequate dose of insulin.”

In 2007, Dr Sabowitz enlisted the help of the City of Lake Havasu to do a trial study. He ran 10 patients through his weight loss program for one year. The results were stunning. Health insurance claims dropped by 50%. Absenteeism dropped by 50%. Medication use dropped by 50-75%. The conclusions were obvious. “Obesity is the chronic disease,” Dr. Sabowitz says. “The high blood pressure, cholesterol, and diabetes (and their complications) are for the most part side effects of the obesity.

In 2009, Dr. Sabowitz and his family relocated to San Antonio. Today, in addition to practicing with New Dimensions, Dr. Sabowitz has returned to the Air National Guard in Arizona, this time as a physician. “Returning to the Air National Guard has fulfilled a void in me that has been present since I left back in 1986,” Dr. Sabowitz says. “It is an honor and privilege to be able to serve my country and knowing that I was able to overcome my obesity in order to achieve this. It’s an endless source of pride.”

Dr. Sabowitz’s Organizations:
• Physician, Air National Guard
• American College of Physicians
• American Society of Bariatric Physicians
• On faculty with the University of Texas, San Antonio, Department of Medicine, Division of Endocrinology