Diabetes, as we are all aware, is a killer disease. One in about
nine Americans has diabetes, and most diabetics are Type 2 diabetics,
meaning that the body does not produce enough insulin to balance glucose
output. Since glucose, sugar and starch do not get converted into
energy; the result is the debilitating condition of Type 2 diabetes.
Huge costs to the economy
People with uncontrolled diabetes are prone to ailments such as hypertension, heart disease, stroke, kidney and blindness. It is estimated that diabetes costs the nation well over $100 billion annually. Since there is no established cure for diabetes, the only approaches now have been to control the disease, through medications and lifestyle modifications.
A possible hope?
All that could change in the future, if the promise shown by an unintended cure is any indication. In morbidly obese patients, gastric bypass surgery is being prescribed as a possible cure. Although not in any way directly aimed at curing diabetes; doctors at many medical centers across the US are discovering that there is a direct possibility that gastric bypass surgery (also sometimes referred to as bariatric surgery) could correct diabetes.
To a patient who undergoes bariatric surgery, the surgeon reduces the size of the stomach or makes it nonfunctional by completely bypassing it. In such patients, food directly reaches the small intestine. Since the food does not enter the stomach; there is a vast reduction in the quantity of food the person consumes.
It was known till now that bariatric surgery leads to great weight loss since it makes the patient eat a lot lesser. Along with it, it is known to lower the risk associated with obesity, such as cardiovascular disease.
Unwitting cure
The medical fraternity is discovering a pleasant offshoot of this surgery, which is that it not only lowers, but almost eliminates Type 2 diabetes. Although how it does this is not yet properly understood;patients that underwent gastric bypass surgery showed vastly improved absorption of sugar levels and insulin sensitivity, almost immediately after undergoing the surgery. It is becoming increasingly clear that this could be the cure doctors were looking for, since an extremely high percentage of patients showed results.
But caution is needed
Having said this; bariatric surgery cannot be taken for granted as a cure for Type 2 diabetes. Doctors need to counsel their patients by laying out the benefits and risks associated with it. Some of the important reasons for which caution has to be exercises are:
1. It is not known whether this works in the long run. Many patients regain weight a few months or years after undergoing the surgery. It remains to be seen if the diabetes that vanishes with weight loss returns when the patient regains weight.
2. It is not known how effective bariatric bypass surgery is effective in the mildly obese patients. Most research has pointed to effectiveness mostly in patients with morbid obesity.
3. Almost no surgery is free of side effects of one or another kind. Some of the common side effects of bariatric bypass surgery include the sensation of feeling sick after consumption of food and development of dumping syndrome -a tendency to leave vast portions of food undigested, since it never gets into the stomach and instead reaches the intestine directly.
Huge costs to the economy
People with uncontrolled diabetes are prone to ailments such as hypertension, heart disease, stroke, kidney and blindness. It is estimated that diabetes costs the nation well over $100 billion annually. Since there is no established cure for diabetes, the only approaches now have been to control the disease, through medications and lifestyle modifications.
A possible hope?
All that could change in the future, if the promise shown by an unintended cure is any indication. In morbidly obese patients, gastric bypass surgery is being prescribed as a possible cure. Although not in any way directly aimed at curing diabetes; doctors at many medical centers across the US are discovering that there is a direct possibility that gastric bypass surgery (also sometimes referred to as bariatric surgery) could correct diabetes.
To a patient who undergoes bariatric surgery, the surgeon reduces the size of the stomach or makes it nonfunctional by completely bypassing it. In such patients, food directly reaches the small intestine. Since the food does not enter the stomach; there is a vast reduction in the quantity of food the person consumes.
It was known till now that bariatric surgery leads to great weight loss since it makes the patient eat a lot lesser. Along with it, it is known to lower the risk associated with obesity, such as cardiovascular disease.
Unwitting cure
The medical fraternity is discovering a pleasant offshoot of this surgery, which is that it not only lowers, but almost eliminates Type 2 diabetes. Although how it does this is not yet properly understood;patients that underwent gastric bypass surgery showed vastly improved absorption of sugar levels and insulin sensitivity, almost immediately after undergoing the surgery. It is becoming increasingly clear that this could be the cure doctors were looking for, since an extremely high percentage of patients showed results.
But caution is needed
Having said this; bariatric surgery cannot be taken for granted as a cure for Type 2 diabetes. Doctors need to counsel their patients by laying out the benefits and risks associated with it. Some of the important reasons for which caution has to be exercises are:
1. It is not known whether this works in the long run. Many patients regain weight a few months or years after undergoing the surgery. It remains to be seen if the diabetes that vanishes with weight loss returns when the patient regains weight.
2. It is not known how effective bariatric bypass surgery is effective in the mildly obese patients. Most research has pointed to effectiveness mostly in patients with morbid obesity.
3. Almost no surgery is free of side effects of one or another kind. Some of the common side effects of bariatric bypass surgery include the sensation of feeling sick after consumption of food and development of dumping syndrome -a tendency to leave vast portions of food undigested, since it never gets into the stomach and instead reaches the intestine directly.
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