How Weight Loss Surgery is Making a Difference For Those With Diabetes

Wednesday, 29 July 2009 14:28

Besides curing a variety of co-morbidities for many patients, including asthma and hypertension, weight loss surgery has shown to be very effective for the treatment of type II diabetes. According to a 2004 article in JAMA titled 'Bariatric Surgery: a systematic review and meta-analysis', "diabetes completely disappeared in 76.8% of the patients and was resolved or improved in 86%."

While this does seem to be good news, further studies have indicated that there are some factors that are relevant to the disappearance or improvement of diabetes symptoms after patients receive weight loss surgery. These include how long a patient has had diabetes and whether or not the patient uses insulin as a treatment for the disease.

Time Since Diabetes Diagnosis

In 'Weight Loss Surgery Treats Diabetes', a 2008 article by Salynn Boyles and Dr. Louise Chang on WebMD, weight loss surgery is most effective for treating diabetes when patients have been diagnosed with it for 2 years or less. At the end of the cited study, 73% of WLS patients "showed no evidence of type 2 diabetes" and had lost about 60% of their excess weight.

For patients that have had diabetes for a greater period of time, it is less likely that their diabetes will cease permanently. While some or all symptoms of the disease may cease after weight loss surgery, patients with long-term diabetes will likely experience the recurrence of symptoms at a later point in time.

Effect of Insulin Treatment

According to a report covered by the New York Times in the June 2009 article 'Weight-Loss Surgery May Be Beneficial for Diabetes', long-term sustainability of the disappearance of diabetes symptoms are more likely for patients that are not dependent on insulin. Only 30% of insulin-dependent patients who had weight loss surgery didn't experience a recurrence of their diabetes. The study also claimed that patients who had lost the greatest amounts of weight were also some of the same patients that experienced the disappearance of their symptoms.

Impact different types of surgery have made (gastric bypass vs. lap-band)
As a whole, most of the studies researching the impact weight loss surgery has on diabetes and other co-morbidities have found that the gastric bypass and adjustable banding (lap-band) procedures are the most effective for patients who wish to see a cease or decrease in their diabetes symptoms.

Long-Term Results

While the very long-term results of using WLS to cure diabetes is not immediately known, some doctors speculate that WLS could theoretically be used solely for the purpose of curing diabetes, instead of as a side benefit of getting the surgery to lose weight. For example, while most WLS patients usually have excess weight of 100 pounds or more (depending on their BMI), exploring the use of weight loss surgery for patients who have less weight to lose (i.e. 50-70 pounds), might help curb type II diabetes in a greater number of people.

Until the success rate of using weight loss surgery to control or eradicate diabetes for the long-term is known, medical professionals may be hesitant to recommend it as treatment. However, as more and more people turn to weight loss surgery as a treatment for obesity, further research can be done to decide the long-reaching effects.