Type 2 Diabetes May be Cured by Weight-Loss Surgery: Experts

Diabetes experts around the world urge that about 100,000 people in the UK must undergo weight-loss surgery to reduce their type 2 diabetes.

Various organizations including, Diabetes UK, American Diabetes Association, International Diabetes Federation and Diabetes India support the new guidelines issued stressing the need for performing bariatric surgeries on obese people.

‘UK diabetes experts stress that weight loss surgery can help reduce the growing incidence of type 2 diabetes effectively.’

Obesity is the major risk factor for developing Type -2 diabetes. Currently, 412 million are affected with this disease in the world. Though physicians have been offering pills, dietary recommendations and lifestyle modification to control it, there has been a growing incidence of diabetes globally.

Therefore, the new guidelines stress that weight-loss surgery can be an effective treatment for type 2 diabetes. They recommend that people with type-2 diabetes who have a body mass index (BMI) of 40 or over, and those with a BMI of at least 30 must undergo the surgery no matter if they have high blood glucose levels or not.

About 50,000 weight-loss surgeries can be performed every year by the NHS to curb the growing obesity menace. But currently, only 6000 surgeries are being done. Therefore, the new guidelines published in the journal Diabetes Care highlight that type 2 diabetes can be controlled by weight loss surgery, preventing its complications such as diabetic nephropathy, eye damage, and heart attacks.

Prof Rubino, the first author of the guidelines report, said that when obese people go to their GP "they are likely to hear that surgery may be an option" but those who present with Type 2 diabetes will rarely hear about surgery."This is what we are trying to change," he said. "Surgery is a true diabetes intervention."

Simon O'Neill, director of health intelligence at Diabetes UK, said, "We strongly support the call for obesity surgery to be fully recognised as an active treatment option for Type 2 diabetes alongside established forms of Type 2 diabetes treatments, such as lifestyle changes, and blood glucose lowering medications.

"This is because there is a wide body of evidence that shows surgery is an effective treatment option for Type 2 diabetes and can be cost effective for the NHS.



Source: Medindia