Gastric Banding Surgery Puts A Hold On Type 2 Diabetes

Ok, so we know that weight loss will aid in treating type 2 diabetes. But would you ever guess that having surgery to lose weight would be preferred over a more “natural” weight loss.

Preliminary research indicates that obese patients with type 2 diabetes who had gastric banding surgery lost more weight and had a higher likelihood of diabetes remission compared to patients who used conventional methods for weight loss and diabetes control.

Why do you think that is? Is it because it is a much more rapid weight loss?

The surgical group achieved an average 20.7 percent body weight loss at two years, compared with 1.7 percent among the conventional-therapy group, representing a loss of 62.5 percent of excess weight (using BMI of 25 as ideal weight) in the surgical group compared with 4.3 percent in the conventional-therapy group.

So I guess that would prove that it is the degree of weight loss and not the method in which it is obtained. Chalk one up for the bariatric surgeons, and hoo-ray for anyone that takes the leap and succeeds!

via JAMA Archives