Can surgery cure diabetes? Maybe for a while, at least.

By ACSH Staff — Jun 24, 2011
In other weight loss news, one of the authors of a new study recommends that weight loss surgeries, such as gastric bypass and gastric banding, become front line type 2 diabetes treatments.

In other weight loss news, one of the authors of a new study recommends that weight loss surgeries, such as gastric bypass and gastric banding, become front line type 2 diabetes treatments. Published in the Archives of Surgery, the meta-analysis of nine studies, totalling 220,000 Americans who underwent weight loss surgery, found that 83 percent of gastric bypass patients and 62 percent of Lapband surgery patients were eventually able to stop taking their diabetes medications some within just days of the surgery. However, these results were not always permanent. One of the studies included in the meta-analysis found that, ten years after surgery, only one-third of the patients were able to control their blood sugar levels without medications, ostensibly from regaining their weight. However, said lead author Dr. Rick Meijer from the Institute for Cardiovascular Research at Amsterdam s Vrije University, the patients outcomes still exceed what can be accomplished with standard diabetes treatments. In standard practice, only a very minor group of individuals with an iron-will can lose enough weight to be cured from type 2 diabetes mellitus, Dr. Meijer wrote in an email to Reuters Health. Dr. Meijer also noted that 90 percent of type 2 diabetes cases are due to excessive weight, but not all obese diabetics would be eligible for weight loss surgery, which has its own side effects.

ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross agrees that these procedures should be utilized far more often than they are. It s too bad the health insurers can t see past the ends of their noses; if they had foresight, they would see that costs would be saved long-term if more weight-loss proedures, especially in the instance of diabetes, were performed.

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