Weight loss surgery link to diabetes cure

 

Radical surgery could play a part in treating type 2 diabetes.

According to new research published in New Scientist magazine, abdominal surgery, a technique used to substantially reduce the weight of patients, could help cure type 2 diabetes.
 
The procedure, called duodenal exclusion, involves the removal of the duodenum, leaving the stomach to feed straight into the mid-small intestine. As a result, the body has less time to absorb calories from food.
 
Following from observations of their peers who witnessed the disappearance of 98 per cent of their patients’ diabetes symptoms after performing the technique, a team of doctors has repeated the procedure on diabetic patients classified as from normal weight to mildly obese.
 
Nine months after the operation, the first two patients were both free of anti-diabetic medicine and had witnessed a significant reduction in their insulin and blood sugar levels.

The duodenum effect

Adult-onset (also know as Type 2) diabetes manifests with a resistance to insulin, which means that liver and muscle cells struggle to take up glucose from the blood.
 
The study suggests that the duodenum may ultimately be key to preventing insulin resistance.
 
Speaking to New Scientist, Francesco Rubino, one of the authors of the study, commented: “This molecular signal, which should be secreted in response to nutrients’ passage, is possibly exaggerated in diabetic patients or produced in an untimely fashion, disturbing the regulation of insulin and blood glucose levels.”
 
If right, this suggests that circumventing the duodenum could negate the signal, thereby solving the problem.
 
Diabetes UK, however, was quick to stress that – currently – the best way to regulate type 2 diabetes is through exercise and a healthy diet.
 
For the time being, Tracy Kelly of Diabetes UK stresses that the key way to manage and possibly prevent type 2 diabetes is by eating a healthy balanced diet and taking regular exercise.
 
www.newscientist.com

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