How Does Weight Loss Surgery Help with Diabetes?

Treatment of Type II diabetes

Once a patient is diagnosed with pre-diabetes or full-blown Type II diabetes, treatment becomes necessary.

The first line of defense is to examine and correct lifestyle issues, such as establishing a healthy diet and making sure the patient gets enough exercise.

The aim, if the patient is obese, is to reduce weight to a healthy level. When this happens, blood glucose levels often drop substantially, either causing diabetes symptoms to go into remission or making them easier to treat. However, losing weight can be very difficult. Many people do not succeed despite repeated attempts to improve their diet and activity level. Bariatric surgery is understood to be a powerful aid in treating Type II diabetes for patients who are also obese.

In addition, medications exist to help people with diabetes.

In diabetes, your body does not produce enough insulin, the substance your body produces to break down blood sugar in the blood, or stops being sensitive enough to the insulin it does produce. People with Type I diabetes, as well as some with Type II diabetes, need insulin therapy, most often delivered by injection; people with Type II diabetes can often take pills to help treat the disease. Some people on diabetes pills still need insulin injections; diabetes pills often work best on those who haven’t had diabetes symptoms for a long time and those who need to take little or no insulin. There are six broad types of diabetes pills available in America; these can stimulate insulin production, lower the amount of blood glucose the liver produces, block breakdown of starches, boost insulin effectiveness, and strengthening the body’s natural substances that reduce blood glucose. Your physician can explain in greater detail; also, the following Web page from diabetes.org goes into greater detail on diabetes pills. 

Bariatric surgery and diabetes

According to a landmark study published in the Journal of the American Medical association (JAMA) in 2004, diabetes went into remission for 76.8% of patients and significantly improved in 86% of patients. Weight loss surgery has traditionally been indicated for the morbidly obese, meaning people with a body mass index of 40 or over, as well as people with BMI of 35 and at least one condition related to obesity, including diabetes. Recently, the laparoscopic gastric band, or lap band, has been approved for people with BMI as low as 30 if a condition such as diabetes is also present.

Bariatric surgery works quickly to help diabetes patients. Some doctors have observed that even just a week after surgery, well before major weight loss has taken place, some patients already show better blood-sugar readings and insulin sensitivity. These rapid results are most commonly seen with patients who receive the gastric bypass surgery, although all surgical weight loss procedures can be effective in improving Type II diabetes.

The gastric bypass procedure may work, besides causing weight loss, because it causes changes to hormone levels and metabolic activity in the body. The precise mechanism is still being studied; however, certain appetite-stimulating substances are produced by the body in lower volumes than before the operation, and other, beneficial substances go up after surgery. This appears to be true not only in obese patients but also in moderately overweight and even normal-weight patients.

Although many patients see remission of their diabetes after weight loss surgery, not all do. That may be because patients must adhere to strict lifestyle changes following surgery, including eating a balanced diet and getting enough exercise, and some people do not keep up with these requirements.

If You are Obese and Have Diabetes …

Los Angeles diabetes patients: We are here to help. If you are obese and have diabetes, please get in touch with LA Bariatrics. Call us at (310) 577-5540 to meet with our staff or to attend a seminar at our facility in Marina Del Rey.