Stomach Banding Can Clear Diabetes: Study
Sydney Morning Herald
Wednesday January 23, 2008
STOMACH surgery can help obese people with type 2 diabetes drive their disease into remission, saving the community millions of dollars, world-first research has found.
The Australian study, to be published today in the Journal Of The American Medical Association, found that three in four obese patients with type 2 diabetes were clear of their diabetes two years after being fitted with a gastric band, while only one in 10 of those who used conventional weight loss methods had the same result.The four-year study at Monash University's Centre for Obesity Research and Education followed 60 diabetics with a body mass index over 30. Those who were given gastric banding, where part of the stomach is closed off, lost 20 per cent of their body weight, while the others lost about 1.7 per cent.One of the study's authors, John Dixon, said yesterday that research had shown it was the degree of weight loss, not the method, that put diabetes into remission."Intensive weight-loss therapy may be a more effective first step in the management of diabetes than simple lifestyle change. And in the long run it is healthier and more cost-effective."Associate Professor Dixon said weight loss for people with type 2 diabetics was difficult because they were often insulin-resistant."People have been slow to embrace weight-loss surgery because there haven't been enough randomised trials to support it, and most people see obesity surgery as being there to treat obesity, not diabetes, but if this works it should be offered."The director of the International Diabetes Institute in Melbourne, Paul Zimmet, said that while the study proved the benefits of gastric banding, it might not be suitable for all diabetics. "There are side-effects, and it should really be seen as a last resort for morbidly obese patients who have failed to lose weight other ways," Professor Zimmet said.An endocrinologist at Royal Prince Alfred hospital, Tania Markovic, said gastric banding was worthwhile in some people who were highly motivated, but it was not a magic cure.More than 1.5 millions Australians have diabetes, and about 50 per cent are overweight or obese. Type 2 diabetes is said to cost Australia about $3 billion a year, and both types are the leading causes of heart disease, stroke, blindness, kidney disease and lower limb amputation.More than 8000 Australians have gastric banding each year, paying up to $10,000, but the federal Minister for Health, Nicola Roxon, has not ruled out funding the surgery. "We know obesity is a national problem and a very serious one. We committed during the election campaign to make obesity a national health priority."with AAP
© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald