WEDNESDAY, June 18 (HealthDay News) -- Weight loss plays a major
role in improving diabetes after obese patients have
stomach-reduction surgery, say Duke University Medical Center
researchers.
Previous studies have suggested that gastric bypass surgery --
which re-routes how food is sent from the stomach to the small
intestine -- helps improve diabetes by causing changes in the way
hormones are secreted from the gut and pancreas.
But the metabolic effects shouldn't overshadow the importance of
losing weight after surgery, the Duke team said.
"Yes, there are physiologic changes related to the restructuring
of the gastrointestinal or GI tract that appear to influence the
rapid improvement in diabetes following gastric bypass. But our
study shows the patients who were able to get off medications
completely and go into remission were the ones who lost the most
weight," Dr. Eric DeMaria, director of bariatric surgery at Duke
University Medical Center, said in prepared statement.
The more weight patients lost, the higher the likelihood of
diabetes improvement, DeMaria and colleagues found.
They studied 314 obese diabetic patients who had gastric bypass
surgery. Of those patients, 71 had severe diabetes that required
insulin therapy because oral medications weren't sufficient to
control the disease.
Overall, gastric bypass surgery had a beneficial effect on
diabetes. After 12 months, all the patients were able to reduce the
dose or number of their diabetes-related medications. Of the 71
patients with severe diabetes, 48 percent achieved remission of
their disease.
Losing weight during the first three weeks to six months after
gastric bypass surgery was critical for patients who achieved
diabetes remission, DeMaria said.
To achieve long-lasting diabetes improvement following
weight-loss surgery, "we need to tell patients to pay attention to
their weight and to do things that enhance weight loss. That can
only be accomplished by changing patient behavior and lifestyle,"
he said.
The study was expected to be presented Wednesday at a meeting of
the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery.
More information
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more
about
diabetes.
