Weight Loss Surgery May Help Diabetes

Phase4 Pharmaceutical Research And Development Division: We have no comment or endorsement of the content of this article. We simply found it interesting and include it(January 22, 2008 - Insidermedicine) Weight loss surgery is more effective at helping obese patients with type 2 diabetes lose weight and attain remission of their disease than standard diabetes treatments that focus on weight loss through lifestyle changes, according to research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Here are some facts about weight loss surgery:

• Also known as bariatric surgery, weight loss surgery changes the anatomy of your digestive system to limit the amount you are able to eat and drink.
• In one type of bariatric surgery, called gastric banding, an inflatable band is placed around the stomach to divide it into an upper and lower section, with a small channel joining the two. The band can be inflated or deflated to make the channel larger or smaller.
• Bariatric surgery is not for everyone. It is associated with significant health risks and requires permanent lifestyle changes. As a result, physicians reserve it only for individuals whose obesity is significantly threatening their health and who cannot lose weight by any other means.

Researchers from Monash University randomly divided 60 obese individuals with type 2 diabetes into two groups. The first group received gastric banding surgery, while the second group tried to lose weight and manage their diabetes through more traditional methods such as lifestyle change.

After following the patients for up to two years, those who received the gastric banding surgery had a diabetes remission rate five times higher than those who received standard care. The surgery group also achieved an average of a 21% loss in body weight, compared with only a 1.7% decrease in the standard treatment group.

Based on these findings, the authors conclude that bariatric surgery is more effective at helping obese patients with type 2 diabetes lose weight and achieve remission of their diabetes than standard treatment. It appears that this substantial weight loss helps drive diabetes into remission.