Weight Loss Surgery Reduces Type 2 Diabetes
The UK’s largest study into the impact of weight loss surgery has revealed some eye-opening facts. The most compelling fact is that complications such as heart disease and type 2 diabetes have vastly reduced. It has been noted by the National Bariatric Surgery Registry that just after one year weight loss surgery, type 2 diabetes cases have fallen by 50% while the average person lost close to 60% of their excessive weight. The National Bariatric Surgery Registry conducted the impact of operations carried out on 7,045 patients over the course of 2 years.
Weight Loss Surgery Reduces Type 2 Diabetes
According to the research, there are over 1 million people in the UK who can benefit from bariatric surgery. The latter includes gastric bypasses and the use of gastric bands. The authors of the study stated how such surgery provides “a real bargain for the health economy and for wider society”.
One of the most salient observations that the study unveiled is that weight loss surgery reduces the overall costs of being diabetic type 2. Suffice to say, the cost of oral drugs, insulin, medical consultations and health care trips all put a great deal of pressure on the individual and the economy.
Alberic Fiennes, a bariatric surgeon and chairman of the National Bariatric Surgery Registry Data Committee stated, “type 2 Diabetes prevention strategy alone has proved ineffective; there are at least two generations of morbidly obese patients who are now presenting with diabetes, stroke, heart disease and cancer for whom preventative measures are utterly irrelevant. The numbers are increasing – these people need to be treated.”
Still as advised by Professor Sir George Alberti, chairman of the charity Diabetes UK, people should make an effort to use exercise and diet to reduce weight first. Alberti observed, “We agree that weight loss surgery (bariatric surgery) should be used as an alternative treatment to help people lose weight if all other attempts have been unsuccessful and their diabetes remains poorly controlled.”
Tags:bariatric surgery, diabetes prevention, gastric bypass, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, weight loss surgery