LONDON: Obese people who undergo weight-loss surgery can dramatically delay, and perhaps prevent, the onset of type 2 diabetes, Swedish researchers said on Wednesday.
Prior studies have shown that weight-loss surgery can reverse type 2 diabetes in patients who already have the condition. The latest findings offer evidence that the procedures can prevent the condition.
“We saw a marked delay (in the development of diabetes) over 15 years,” said Dr. Lars Sjostrom of the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, whose study appears in the New England Journal of Medicine.
“Some of those surgical patients will probably develop diabetes later. But over a lifetime, there will be a large difference.”
According to the World Health Organization, 346 million people worldwide have diabetes. Most of them, about 90 percent, have type 2 diabetes, the form of the disease linked with obesity and lack of exercise.
The link between obesity and diabetes is well-documented, and making lifestyle changes or taking weight-reducing drugs can cut the risk of diabetes by 40 to 45 percent. The study, part of the larger Swedish Obese Subject study, was designed to see if the surgical weight loss would have the same effect. None of the patients included in the test had diabetes when the project began in 1987.
Participants chose whether or not to have surgery, and enrollment ended in February 2001. Stomach stapling was the most common procedure (69 percent), followed by gastric banding (19 percent) and gastric bypass (12 percent.)
Weight-loss surgery helps prevent diabetes
