Gastric bypass makes gut burn sugar faster

Nature News ^ | 25 July 2013 | Heidi Ledford

[neverdem]

Diabetic rats control blood glucose better after weight-loss surgery.

A procedure increasingly used to treat obesity by reducing the size of the stomach also reprogrammes the intestines, making them burn sugar faster, a study in diabetic and obese rats has shown.

If the results, published today in Science1, hold true in humans, they could explain how gastric bypass surgery improves sugar control in people with diabetes. They could also lead to less invasive ways to produce the same effects.

“This opens up the idea that we could take the most effective therapy we have for obesity and diabetes and come up with ways to do it without a scalpel,” says Randy Seeley, an obesity researcher at the University of Cincinnati in Ohio, who was not involved in the work.

As rates of obesity and diabetes skyrocket in many countries, physicians and patients are turning to operations that reconfigure the digestive tract so that only a small part of the stomach is used. Such procedures are intended to allow people to feel full after smaller meals, reducing the drive to consume extra calories. But clinical trials in recent years have shown that they can also reduce blood sugar levels in diabetics, even before weight is lost2, 3.

“We have to think about this surgery differently,” says Seeley. “It’s not just changing the plumbing, it’s altering how the gut handles glucose.”

Work-around
Nicholas Stylopoulos, an obesity researcher at the Boston Children’s Hospital in Massachusetts, and his colleagues decided to learn more about this mechanism by studying one of the most popular weight-loss procedures, the Roux-en-Y bypass. The surgery reduces the stomach to about the size of a hen's egg, and rearranges the intestines into the shape of a Y. The arm of the Y that is connected to the reduced stomach...

[neverdem]

Americans cut back on Soda - Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Dr. Pepper Snapple Group see continued sales declines.

FReepmail me if you want on or off the diabetes ping list.

[DoughtyOne]

It's not easy to do, but you take care of these things by diet and exercise.  I'm not a fan of taking surgical action to do something you can't do by willpower.

Ramirez's political cartoon "daily dose" 07/28/2013: LINK

FOLKS, THOSE OF YOU WHO CAN, PLEASE CLICK HERE AND PENCIL IN YOUR DONATION TO HELP END THIS FREEPATHON.  THANK YOU!
...this is a general all purpose message, and should not be seen as targeting any individual I am responding to...

[Patriot Babe]

I have a cousin who had Gastric Bypass and her diabetes is gone. She recommended that I should get it. I fear the side effects of Gastric Bypass. I would rather try to fight my obesity on my own by exercising and watching what I eat. Also another woman at work got some expermental weight loss treatment at a hospital now she is suffering from the side effects of the treatment. Sorry I will not quit trying to lose weight the natural way.

[Sacajaweau]

if you need gastric bypass....it means you ate like a pig for years....

[Sacajaweau]

If I have a soda..it’s gonna be part of a root beer float!!

[Shadow44]

Willpower is in short supply these days.

We’ve become a country all about instant gratification.

[momtothree]

I know one person who was obese and had diabetes. He went through the gastric bypass. To be specific, he got the band... not the complete surgery that cuts away the stomach. Anyways, he lost over 100+ pounds within eight months and his diabetes became manageable through diet (not the insulin shots anymore). Sounds good, huh? Well, it got tricky. After about a year, he started eating wrong again. He gained back all the weight and is insulin dependent again. I guess the surgery helps some but for others.. unless the over-eating issues are addressed.. the surgery is worthless. I’m with you: I’d rather go on a diet then undergo surgery.

[DoughtyOne]

I agree. I will say that folks with medical problems can’t always do as I say here. It should be assumed I’m talking people whose health will become bad if they don’t take the proper measures.

[IamConservative]

I wonder what the gut bacteria might have to do with this..??..

Ulcers are caused by bacteria. What may be cured?

[Gay State Conservative]

I've never had my stomach stapled but I have been overweight,twice.Both times I was put on an oral diabetes medication and both times,after having lost a lot of weight, I was taken off of that med.So maybe it's the weight itself...the excess fat,perhaps...that causes the diabetes and once that fat disappears the sugar regulation improves.

[neverdem]

I fear the side effects of Gastric Bypass. I would rather try to fight my obesity on my own by exercising and watching what I eat.

Roux-en-Y gastric bypass is the last thing I would recommend because it is not in accord with normal physiology. Someone needs to compare the results with gastric banding.

I posted the article because it shows how Roux-en-Y gastric bypass alters normal physiology and how GLUT1 compensates.

I prefer patients trying carbohydrate restricted diets first, iincluding exercise as tolerated. If you enter Volek JS, Feinman RD into PubMed's query box, then you'll do an authors' search on two writers who have written 11 articles showing the benefit of carbohydrate restriction.

[neverdem]

I wonder what the gut bacteria might have to do with this..??..

They have been implicated, but the argument isn't settled, IIRC.

Microbes May Slim Us Down After Gastric Bypass

[neverdem]

Check comment# 12, and do that author search, please. Just check the abstracts.

[csmusaret]

Mouth by pass renders sugar harmless.

[Bigg Red]

Carbohydrate restriction? Like Atkins? I have tried that diet twice and lost no weight whatsoever. I even went on whatever the max amount of time was for the strict restriction —I think it was called “induction” — but the weight did not budge.

The food was great, and I did not gain any weight, but I wasted my time with it.

I admit that I did not increase my exercise with it because it really left me feeling weak and woozy. But I am not a sitter, and I get a fair amount of exercise in my daily activities — housework, laundry, gardening. For example, the laundry room is in the basement, and I frequently hang my laundry on the clothesline outside. When I use the bathroom, I almost always deliberately go upstairs instead of using the powder room on the first floor.

Tried the Mediterranean diet, the South Beach diet. You name it. So disgusted at this point.

[captain_dave]

Expecting a surgeon to fix your obesity problem is like expecting a democrat politician to fix your national debt problem.

[Quickgun]

My wife had the gastric sleeve surgery, which is less invasive than the gastric bypass, and doesn’t reduce its effectiveness over time like the lap band surgery.It has been a lifesaver for her.There are all kinds of problems that can cause people to be overweight, overeating is just the most common one. without going into detail naming all the things that COULD be wrong, if you need bypass surgery, talk to your doctor about it. Our health insurance paid all but a fraction of it. Her blood sugar is now back to normal, blood pressure is normal without medication, 2 years since surgery.

[Bigg Red]

Thank you for your kind advice. Continued good health to your wife.

[BfloGuy]

Eat stuff that makes less sugar. Skip the bypass.