The biggest news about diabetes, surgery and weightloss

at 3:18 PM

This news is so big it has made it to all the major media networks and newspapers including the New York Times and the Wall Street.  Bottom line is for some people the cure for diabetes may lie in surgery.  This study showed that for the overweight and obese weight loss surgery was far more effective than standard therapies for type II diabetes.  The surgery was also effective for lowering blood pressure and cholesterol.  The two new studies were both published in New England Journal of Medicine and rigorously showed a comparison between standard medication and intestinal/stomach surgeries.

These observations are not new.  For years doctors have noticed that weight loss (also called bariatric) surgeries could sometimes get rid of type II diabetes but had not hard data to prove it.  Type II diabetes is one of the fastest growing epidemics in human history so the question is whether surgery with its risks and complications should be more widely used. The number of people with Type II diabetes has tripled in the past 30 years to more than 20 million people and most people with this disease are over weight or obese.

The experts think that the surgery not only helps people to lose weight which by itself helps type II diabetes but the alteration in the anatomy of the stomach alters the cellular composition of the stomach which makes hormones and control satiety and hunger.  Here is the very interesting thing: some people were cured of their type II diabetes even before they left the hospital after their surgery!

Bottom line from me: eat less, and move more and read more science about nutrition.