Losing Weight To Cure Type 2 Diabetes

You may have heard of the nation’s growing obesity epidemic, but did you know we’re also facing a “diabesity” crisis as well?

According to United Health, one of the largest insurance companies in the country, if current trends continue, half of Americans will either be pre-diabetic or have type 2 diabetes by 2020.

Since T2DM is associated with being overweight and not exercising enough, it’s not surprising to see that these statistics correlate with rising worldwide obesity rates.

Type 1 Diabetes: Causes, Symptoms, Complications & Treatment

“Our new research shows there is a diabetes time bomb ticking in America, but fortunately there are practical steps that can be taken now to defuse it, ” Simon Stevens, chairman of United Health Group’s Center for Health Reform & Modernization, says.

Doctors usually encourage T2DM patients to drop their excess weight and adjust their eating habits if they want to improve or reverse their diagnosis.

Bariatric surgery is one of the most effective treatment options for T2DM patients when diet and exercise alone aren’t enough to trigger weight loss and improve blood sugar management.

How Weight Loss Can Reverse Type 2 Diabetes

Type 2 diabetes is one of the leading causes of death in the US; and someone in the world dies from diabetic complications every 10 seconds.

If you have type 2 diabetes, your risk of dying prematurely from complications stemming from your condition rises as much as 80%.

You’ve been told to remove sugar from your diet, exercise more, and maybe even fill a prescription for anti-diabetic drugs or insulin.

Weight Loss And Diabetes Reversal

This means if you’re not currently using medication to treat your T2DM, you will be soon if you don’t get in shape.

And if you’re already using some form of medical intervention, you’ll need to continually up your dosage to stay on top of your blood sugar at your current weight.

Yet as anyone with insulin resistance knows, it feels almost impossible to lose enough weight to cure your type 2 diabetes totally on your own (or without a wish-granting genie).

Bariatric Weight Loss Surgery Can Cure For Type 2 Diabetes

So if you’re overweight and also have type 2 diabetes, you owe it to yourself to consider bariatric surgery to help bring your body back to the healthy zone.

Bruce M. Wolfe, MD, professor of surgery at Oregon Health and Science University School of Medicine, shares the story ofa patient requiring “400 daily units of insulin” before bariatric surgery needing zero the day she was discharged from the hospital. Read the article here.

We live for stories like this at Panhandle Weight Loss Center; but, how often do these dream stories happen to patients in the real world?

Bariatric Surgery Linked To Long Term Hba1c Reduction, Weight Loss In Type 2 Diabetes

Researchers from one study took 150 patients who were poorly managing their T2DM and gave them diet and exercise counseling, weight management help, blood sugar monitoring, and diabetic medications.

They divided the patients up into three groups of 50: one group continued with the aforementioned program of healthy living adjustments; the second group had gastric bypass surgery; and the remaining patients elected for gastric sleeve surgery.

After a year of follow up, researchers learned that only 12% of patients in the first group receiving lifestyle coaching were able to control their T2DM — and that’s only because they increased their medications.

Weight Loss Surgery Can Reverse Diabetes, But Cure Is Elusive

42% of gastric bypass patients and 37% of gastric sleeve patients exhibited “excellent” control of their T2DM (by having Hgb A1C less than 6.0) and they were able to do so while decreasing their T2DM medications.

An astounding 78% of patients opting for bariatric surgery were able to take themselves off all of their medications for controlling T2DM.

Yet only 6–8% of patients in that study who chose not to have bariatric surgery saw similar results (even with the help of medication!).

Management Of Hyperglycaemia In Type 2 Diabetes, 2022. A Consensus Report By The American Diabetes Association (ada) And The European Association For The Study Of Diabetes (easd)

Let’s go over your weight- loss surgery options so you can become part of the majority kicking type 2 diabetes to the curb:

During gastric sleeve surgery, your stomach will be reduced by 80%. Your “new”, smaller stomach will be about the size and shape of a banana.

Your smaller stomach will not be able to hold as much food as you’re used to eating so you’ll feel full sooner. This will trigger weight loss naturally.

Achieving Type 2 Diabetes Remission Through Weight Loss

Additionally, when you reduce the size of your stomach, your body also produces less ghrelin — the hormone responsible for telling your brain that you’re hungry. A gastric sleeve will decrease your hunger cravings, which may stabilize your blood sugar levels.

80% of gastric sleeve patients lose weight post-surgery and they lose an average of 65% of their excess weight as a result.

Then, you’ll also have a second component performed to limit the amount of calories your body absorbs from the food you eat. This malabsorptive component means your digestive path is slightly altered, but it also results in losing the most amount of weight.

Obesity And The Cost Of Diabetes

But, if you require significant amounts of insulin to control your type II diabetes, the switch may be the better option. Talk with our doctors to determine what the best option is for you. The duodenal switch works by upregulating certain hormones to make your body more sensitive to your own insulin secretion.

According to the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS), leading public health experts in the field of diabetes have concluded that:

A key finding across numerous studies about bariatric surgery for T2 diabetics is that the earlier the surgery, the higher chances of long-term remission.

What Is The Best Treatment For Type 2 Diabetes

Based on numerous reports, T2DM patients treated medically have about a 4.5% chance of dying each year as a result of their condition. T2DM patients after bariatric surgery lower those chances to less than 1%.

Other studies show that for every 1% decrease in your HbA1C, you’ll decrease your chances of developing long-term complications from diabetes by 25–45%!

While that’s pretty rare for bariatric practices, it may also be the reason for their extremely low complication rates (like their less than 0.1% complication rate with gastric sleeve surgery). Find out if yourhealth insurance provider covers bariatric surgery and other weight loss procedures.

Definitive Treatment Of Type 2 Diabetes With Weight Loss Surgery From Rumor To Reality!

Insurance companies will generally cover weight -loss surgery because it helps you lose weight, control your diabetes, and resolves many other serious (read: expensive) medical conditions at the same time.

After all, $1 out of every $10 spent on healthcare in the US goes to treating type 2 diabetes. Which leads diabetics to spend an average 2.3x as much on healthcare costs than those without T2DM.

We aim to have every patient off their diabetic medications as soon as they’re discharged from the hospital, or not long after, here at Panhandle Weight Loss Center.

Reversing Type 2 Diabetes

So take the time to consider all your options for bariatric surgery if you’re finally ready to beat your type 2 diabetes for good. Control your type 2 diabetes with these 8 healthy tips until your weight loss surgery. Click here now!