Bariatric Surgery in Diabetic Adults Improves Insulin Sensitivity Better Than Diet

[n2doc]

ScienceDaily (Aug. 9, 2010) — Gastric bypass surgery improves Type 2 diabetes by other mechanisms in addition to weight loss and does so better than a low-calorie diet despite achieving equal weight loss, a new study finds.

The results are being presented at The Endocrine Society's 92nd Annual Meeting in San Diego.

"Our study shows that in the short term, weight loss by diet alone does not achieve the same improvements in diabetes as gastric bypass surgery," said the presenting author, Judith Korner, MD, PhD, assistant professor of medicine at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York.

Korner and her colleagues found that gastric bypass surgery better improved insulin sensitivity, the body's ability to successfully clear glucose sugar from the bloodstream into the cells. Insulin sensitivity is impaired in people with Type 2 diabetes, and obesity adds to this problem. The result is a buildup of sugar in the blood.

The study compared the effects on diabetic adults of a low-calorie diet versus Roux-en-Y gastric bypass, the most common gastric bypass procedure. Roux-en-Y gastric bypass decreases the size of the stomach and reroutes the digestive tract to bypass most of the stomach and part of the small intestine. After gastric bypass, many diabetic patients achieve normal blood glucose control or vastly improved control, and some may no longer require diabetes medications.

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http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100621091215.htm