Thinking about weight loss surgery? Researchers have found that it may just help patients with type 2 diabetes. In fact, it turns out that surgery could be a better way to treat diabetes than traditional drug therapy alone, according to Bloomberg.
"In some ways the gap between the benefit of surgery and medical treatment was even greater over time," said Philip Schauer, one of the researchers, in an interview with Bloomberg. "Not only is it more effective at getting to a good blood sugar control, even to near normal levels, it maintains that."
This latest study compared two types of weight loss surgery against weight loss attained by diet and exercise along with nutrition counseling. It also compared it to some who also took diabetes medicines than can help promote weight loss. In the end, the researchers found that 37.5 percent of patients who had gastric bypass surgery and a quarter of those who had a sleeve gastrectomy procedure no longer needed diabetes medications, according to Reuters.
"At three years, the therapeutic gap-the difference between blood sugar in the surgical group and the medical group-got even larger in favor of surgery," said Schauer in an interview with USA Today. In fact, diabetes became worse in the group taking medications alone, which is typical for diabetic patients.
Currently, the researchers aren't sure exactly why weight loss surgery is so effective against diabetes. Yet the scientists witnessed almost an immediate improvement after surgery. In fact, patients who needed insulin to treat their diabetes the morning before surgery didn't need it anymore by the time they left the hospital a day or two after surgery, according to USA Today.
The findings reveal that weight loss surgery can be an effective means to help treat diabetes. More importantly, it shows that by combining surgery with other treatments, patients can more effectively treat and combat their diabetes.
