Weight Loss Surgery Shows "Remarkable" Results in Reversing Diabetes, Too

Benefits are promising

Weight-loss surgery can also bring about a dramatic reduction in type 2 diabetes, doctors are discovering. The surgery appears to be able to stop damage to the pancreas, reversing the cause of diabetes as well as alleviate the symptoms. In a study of 150 patients, one third got gastric bypass, one-third were given a lap band-like device, and the rest received the best drug therapies. In the patients who got the bypass surgery, their blood sugar became normal even within hours of the operation, before losing any weight. "Gastric bypass surgery seems to uniquely restore pancreatic beta-cell function. [It] remarkably targets belly fat where hormones that are toxic to the body develop," said Dr. Sangeeta Kashyap, an endocrinologist with the Cleveland Clinic. And because the medical costs for many diabetic patients can far exceed $25,000 (the cost of the surgery), it may become more common. (NBC News)

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