Gastric Bypass More Effective Than Dieting For Treating Type 2 Diabetes

Posted: Aug 26 in Obesity and your Health by Staff

Weight loss surgeries like the Roux-en-Y gastric bypass procedure have been helping morbidly obese people lose significant amounts of weight for years now. As a result, many of these patients have found relief from obesity related illnesses, such as type 2 diabetes. But wouldn’t these people find the same relief if they simply went on a diet? Maybe not.

According to a recent study funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, people who have Roux-en-Y gastric bypass see more improvement of type 2 diabetes symptoms than people who follow a low-calorie diet without having surgery.

Dr. Judith Korner and her colleagues studied 14 obese patients who had type 2 diabetes. Half of the participants were put on a liquid diet that allowed them 800 calories per day. The remaining seven obese diabetic participants underwent gastric bypass surgery. Researchers followed the participants until both groups lost an average of 8% of body weight.

Researchers found that the patients who underwent gastric bypass surgery lost 8% of their body weight in about 3.5 weeks, while it took the liquid dieters about 8 weeks to achieve the same results. The gastric bypass patients were also able to completely discontinue their diabetes medications by the end of the study, while the dieters only reduced their medication use by 55%.