More evidence gastric bypass helps with Diabesity

Scottsdale, AZ – Diabesity is the term used to describes the obesity-diabetes epidemic that has seized America is endorsed by the American Diabetes Association. Recently, the ADA has also endorsed a more aggressive approach to the treatment of type 2 diabetes. This includes going beyond the typical lifestyle recommendations such as dietary changes and increasing physical activity, and to recommend gastric bypass surgery (Source: Scienceline.com).

In this surgical procedure, surgeons staple the stomach to make it into a small pouch and rearrange the intestine so the middle portion of the intestines is connected to the stomach. Patients begin to loose weight as the food bypasses large portions of the intestine and the calories are not absorbed. The small stomach also prevents patients from eating large amounts of food. As a side effect, many patients suffering from diabetes note that the disease disappears – even before the pounds are lost!

This suggests there is some other underlying mechanism that leads to the resolution of diabetes type 2 in these patients. If this mechanism can be found it may help to understand why people get type 2 diabetes and even to the creation of new medications that can help control diabetes better. Recent experimental data suggests that bypass surgery in diabetic animals can also cure the animal form of type 2 diabetes. It is certainly exciting to see if this new cutting edge research can pay off with new discoveries for the treatment of diabetes in the future.