What to Know About Bariatric Surgery for Type 2 Diabetes

The term bariatric is derived from the Greek words for “weight” and “to treat.” Originally, as its name denotes, this form of surgery was aimed at helping people manage obesity. But as medical science’s understanding of bariatric surgery improved, experts recognized that these procedures could also help people with obesity-related health conditions, including Type 2 diabetes. “In 1999 when I was a junior resident in general surgery, I was struck by the observation that patients who had this type of surgery were very rapidly seeing improvement in their diabetes,” says Dr. Francesco Rubino, who is now chair of metabolic and bariatric surgery at King’s College London. “Even patients who had very severe diabetes would get to normal levels of blood sugars and could stop taking medication.” He wasn’t the only one noticing these effects, which were supported by formal research. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] One early study from researchers at East Carolina University found that 83% of patients with Type 2 diabetes who underwent gastric bypass surgery experienced long-term remission of their disease. Despite these sorts of dramatic clinical observations, surgery at that time was not considered a primary treatment option for Type 2 diabetes. It was also assumed, Rubino says, that any diabetes improvements were caused exclusively by reductions in body weight. “But it always seemed to me like the magn...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Disease healthscienceclimate Source Type: news