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Saturday, May 21, 2011

Surgery for Diabetes, Can It Help?

Surgery for diabetes, some surgeons found out that with a form of gastric bypass for Type 2 diabetes, showed that some of these patients no longer had diabetes after the surgery. Duodenal exclusion is the name of the surgery and was done on Type 2 diabetes patients between the ages of 20m and 30.

These patients had a BMI of between 22 and 34 kg/m squared. The upper small intestine was removed leading to the stomach feeding directly into the mid-small intestine. What does this mean? There is a reduction in the time that the body has to take in the calories from the food.

Dr. Iain Frame, the research manager at Diabetes UK said that is not easy to make any firm conclusion from this study because it has a small number of subjects which is seven at the time of accessing this news item. Out of these only two cases have been followed up.

Since the food intake has been considerably reduced, one explanation could be that with the insulin the patients were still producing, these patients were able to manage . Another explanation could be that perhaps deflecting the food away from certain parts of the intestine may have changed how the hormones work.

The advice is to consider surgery for diabetes only as a last option especially that one can lose weight and prevent diabetes by eating healthy foods along with exercise. Weight Loss Surgery sounds like a pipe dream but it’s not. You can keep your eyes and ears open for more on this.

Diabetes is a highly challenging condition. With the need to check the blood sugar a lot and avoid some carbs and the danger of complication risk, it is no wonder some diabetic can become frustrated and depressed. Some are lucky to be able to control their condition through diet and exercise.

Others need medication in addition to diet and exercise. Still others, especially those who are already disciplined in following all the advice, need more. So with the researchers exploring new options, let’s make sure we hear of them, especially this surgery for diabetes.