Weight Loss Surgery As Cure For Diabetes
Scranton Times-Tribune, 2nd December 2009
It was accidentally discovered about 10 years ago that weight-loss surgery led to improvements in Type 2 diabetes.
The evidence today is even more sure which leads doctors to a conclusion that the surgery can be a cure for diabetes, no matter if the patient is overweight or not.
Dr. Walter J. Pories from East Carolina University said diabetes had been thought to be an incurable progressive disease which might cause amputations, renal failure and blindness. Now, weight-loss surgery seems to be a great opportunity for those who suffer from it as the operation takes only one hour and requires two days of hospitalization. And then the patients do not need to use their medicines any more.
As many as 86% of obese patients with Type 2 diabetes who underwent weight-loss surgery found the disease much easier to control after the procedure. Complete remission of the disease was found with 78% of the patients whereas 86% of them found the remission or improvement.
Obese patients quickly lose weight after the batriatic surgery which improves Type 2 diabetes. That allows for an easier control of their blood glucose levels. There is also strong point: as the stomach gets smaller after the surgery, and allows food to bypass part of the small intestine, it causes chemical changes in the intestine. Somehow the secretion of hormones in the gut responsible for appetite are being altered.
Studies show that weight-loss procedures make the reductions in ghrelin (hormone that stimulates hunger). Another conclusion says that the surgery alters the expression of genes that regulate glucose and metabolism.
