The health benefits of weight loss surgery (formally known as bariatric surgery) have been known for many years. All of the established procedures have been shown in countless studies to be safe and effective.
A recent study has gone further and shown the benefit of early surgery.
The recent study, conducted at the Cleveland Clinic in the US, looked at 252 people who had undergone gastric bypass or gastric sleeve surgery. All of the people in the study has Type 2 Diabetes before surgery.
Seven years after their procedure, nearly 60% had achieved the target set for blood sugar by the American Diabetes Association 53 Mmol/Mol (7%). Nearly half of the people had their diabetes under control and had stopped using their diabetes medication and 15% had achieved permanent remission from their diabetes.
The study also showed that results were better for patients who had the gastric bypass. They lost more weight and saw their diabetes medication reduce by more than the sleeve group.
One of the important findings of this study was that the researchers found that the longer a person had Diabetes before surgery the less likely they were to see dramatic improvements over the following years. This confirmed previous learning that the health benefits are greater for those diabetics who are not yet taking any diabetes medication.
What can we take from this research:
- Weight loss surgery offers significant health benefits to Type 2 diabetics
- Weight loss and diabetes‘resolution’ is better with gastric bypass than gastric sleeve
- The health benefits are greater when people have surgery when they are pre-diabetic or newly diagnosed.
My message is that if your weight is impacting on your health, don’t delay. Start exploring the benefits of weight loss surgery to you sooner rather than later.