Weight-Loss Surgery And Diabetes
Time September 16, 2008
Gastric bypass surgery is sometimes not only the last solution for obese and overweight patients, but it’s also a life saving procedure for patients with diabetes.
There are several reasons for that situation. Not only the operation reduces the risk of death because of obesity-related diseases, but also normalizes blood sugar with diabetes.
This is now the most common weight-loss surgery in the USA. About 140.000 operations are done each year.
The last studies show however that non diabetes patients who underwent the surgery lost much more weight than patients with diabetes.
310 patients were in the study. 92% of patients without diabetes lost about 40% of their weight which is considered to be successful. On the other hand, only 79% of the patients with diabetes were able to lose that weight a year later. The same surgery techniques were used in both cases meaning the patients’ stomachs were reduced so that they were forced to eat less.
The director of the Bariatric Surgery Program at the University of California, San Francisco, Dr Guilherme Campos, thinks although the same procedure is being used, there is not a standard size of the stomach sac. Doctors determine the individual size for each patient. As the stomach lining is elastic and flexible, if the diet is not followed, the stomach may return to its previous size. The other reason might be connected with the medicines that diabetes take to control blood sugar. “One of the known factors for why diabetics have trouble controlling their weight is the types of medications they take,” Campos said. “Diabetes is a consequence of being overweight, but [another complication] is having to take medications that add to weight gain. It’s a double-edged sword, and a vicious cycle.”
There is a solution, however. Dr Campos advices to take new anti-diabetes drugs, such as DPP-IV inhibitors. These can both, keep blood sugar and weight under control.
Another fact is that even though diabetes lost less weight after the surgery, 90% of them has lower blood sugar level after the operation. It means they can lower the amount of the medicines they used to take. Also, gastric bypass surgery has even greater results which are recently diagnosed with diabetes as it is very likely that they will get back to normal sugar metabolism after the surgery. The reasons are that some weight-related hormones are reduced.
Dr Campos reminds the patients that surgery is not a final answer as the weight-loss surgery needs to be maintained after leaving the hospital.
