According to a recently published study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, it’s now possible for obese people with type 2 diabetes to get rid of their condition by having weight loss surgery.  But is going under the knife to lose weight a viable treatment for diabetics in the long run?  While the procedure sounds relatively safe, albeit a bit desperate, obesity has become such a growing problem now that the entire world is heading down a dark, couch potato shaped path.  Diabetes ranks as the 5th leading cause of death in the United States and 7th in Canada, with over 19 million affected south of the border and at least two million up here.  Doctors believe that the time is right to consider surgery as a cure.

The Study

From 2002 to 2006, the study took place consisting of 60 patients with a BMI (Body Mass Index) of over 30 but less than 40.  All patients involved had been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes within the last two years.  The goal of the study was to see whether bariatric surgery or conventional diabetes treatments were better, and the results were astounding.  Of the 30 patients who underwent adjustable gastric banding surgery, 22 of them had their diabetes go into remission, while only 4 of the 30 patients offered conventional treatment had a remission.  Of 60 patients, 73 per cent were cured, no longer required drugs and took clean blood tests.  The surgery was more effective at curing diabetes because those who took part in it lost a much larger portion of body weight (20.7 per cent) than patients who received conventional treatment (1.7 per cent) such as insulin, metformin and conforming to a healthy diet.

The surgery itself involves a restrictive procedure called laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding; a silicone band is wrapped around the top of the stomach and tightened to create a smaller stomach.  The band can be tightened or loosened by injecting more or less saline through a tiny spot just under your skin.  Lap bands are a less invasive form of surgery than other weight loss surgery types in the past, due to the relatively non-invasive methods of the procedure.

About Type 2

The reason this procedure is even necessary is because type 2 diabetes can develop as a result of chronic obesity.  Now listed as an epidemic by the CDC, type 2 diabetes is a condition in which the body’s insulin is unusable.  As a hormone that regulates daily metabolism, insulin is needed by the body to break down sugar in foods into energy, to prevent a high blood sugar level.  Symptoms are slower to appear in type 2 diabetes than in type 1 diabetes.  Frequent symptoms include: 

• Fatigue
• Frequent urination
• Unusual thirst
• Unexplained weight loss

Greater risk factors for developing diabetes include being overweight with emphasis on the abdominal area, having high cholesterol in your blood, or high blood pressure, among other things.  The Canadian Health Network says, “The complications of diabetes are serious and include erectile dysfunction, limb amputation, blindness, kidney failure, heart disease, stroke and premature death.  People with diabetes are more susceptible to infectious diseases such as boils and yeast infections and have an increased risk of death due to pneumonia or the flu than do people who don't have diabetes.”