For years, bariatric surgery has offered an effective means of losing significant amounts of weight when other methods have failed. The health benefits of losing weight are many and include decreased hypertension, improvement in cholesterol, and the resolution of comorbid conditions like type 2 diabetes. Recent evidence suggests, however, that the health benefits of bariatric surgery may not result from the weight loss alone. If so, bariatric surgery becomes an even more attractive option for people looking transform their bodies and their lives for good.
The link between excess weight and a decreased ability to properly produce or utilize insulin is well established. According to the website of the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery, in approximately 80 percent of type 2 diabetes patients, obesity is a factor contributing to the disease. Even a small amount of weight loss has been shown to reduce the effects of type 2 diabetes, and many patients have successfully eliminated their blood sugar problems after losing a significant amount of weight. So it is not surprising that bariatric surgery, which allows many patients who have been unsuccessful with other weight loss methods to shed their excess weight, should have a significant impact on diabetes, as well as other obesity-related conditions. However, physicians and medical scientists are now starting to investigate whether bariatric surgery can help patients with diabetes through other mechanisms besides just weight loss itself.
A major study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association reported that 76.8 percent of diabetic patients participating in the study no longer required any medications after bariatric surgery and 86 percent showed a decrease in the severity of the disease. More interestingly, the resolution of diabetes in many patients was observed only days after surgery, before significant weight loss took place. Physicians theorize that the effect may be due to a change in the body's ability to produce and process certain digestive hormones after bariatric surgery. Indeed, higher rates of diabetes resolution occurred in patients who underwent malabsorptive or combination malabsorptive and restrictive procedures than in those who underwent purely restrictive procedures. Additional studies are currently underway to identify the specific factors that are involved in the resolution of diabetes in bariatric patients.
If you have questions about metabolic surgery and its benefits for diabetes and other comorbid diseases, please contact Dr. Abel R. Gonzalez at the Center for Advanced Medicine. We will be happy to answer your questions or set up an appointment.
Dr. Abel R. Gonzalez
Abraham Lincoln #953
Santo Domingo
Dominican Republic
Toll Free: 1.866.410.3533
Direct: 1.809.540.2278
Fx: 1.809.541.2303
Before and after photos of Dr. Abel R. Gonzalez’s patients.