Obesity is a leading cause of Type 2 diabetes. Doctors say bariatric surgery works because it leads to long-term weight loss which helps lower blood sugar levels.
NORTH CAROLINA -- Nearly 90 percent of people diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes are overweight, while research shows weight loss surgery may be able to completely reverse Type 2 diabetes. That being said, the number of people getting the surgery is small.
Before gastric bypass surgery, 58-year-old Judy Grant weighed 306 pounds and had Type 2 diabetes. A year later, she’s more than 100 pounds lighter and all signs of Type 2 diabetes are gone.
"I wasn't insulin dependent yet, but that was coming,” she explained. “And I knew that I was quickly approaching that because I was just having so much trouble and it took so much to manage me and I was thinking, ‘If I continue on, where would I be?’"
Obesity is a leading cause of Type 2 diabetes. Doctors say bariatric surgery works because it leads to long-term weight loss which helps lower blood sugar levels.
Nearly 90 percent of people diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes are overweight, while research shows weight loss surgery may be able to completely reverse Type 2 diabetes. That being said, the number of people getting the surgery is small.
"In more than 434 patients who underwent gastric bypass, 89 percent of those have completely eliminated diabetes,” said Dr. Piotr Gorecki. “Now we still call it suppression rather than a cure because still certain factors may be import there. But for practical reasons they do not take their medicine, their glucose levels are normal and they do not have any other features of diabetes as a disease."
Even those patients who aren’t “cured” see significant improvements. However, there are still relatively few people undergoing the procedure. The National Institutes of Health Guidelines, written nearly 20 years ago, state only the morbidly obese should be eligible. That possibly puts up roadblocks for millions of other patients who could benefit.
Some doctors say it’s time to re-evaluate those guidelines.
"Since both of these diseases, obesity and diabetes, are so prevalent and are so epidemic on such a large scale, this will be a major issue for insurance companies, for all third party payers including the government for medical and surgical societies to come up with new guidelines,” said Gorecki.
Meanwhile, supporters hope evidence pointing to improved health benefits will change the outlook in the medical community.