Diabetes May Be Disorder Of Upper Intestine: (Obesity)Surgery May Correct It

Science Daily ^ | March 6, 2008

[keepitreal]

My dad has always been thin. He has always eaten right. He was recently diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.

[pgkdan]

I’m obese now and taking 7 shots a day of insulin but when I was first diagnosed I was 6’1” and 225 lbs and in very good shape. 15 years later and it’s a different story. I still exercise daily but even with over 400 IU’s a day I can’t get my blood sugar out of the 400’s and keep it down. I tried to get approved for bariatric surgery last year but my insurance sain no. Plan to try again this year.

[keepitreal]

God bless you! I hope that you can get the surgery this year.

[don-o]

ping

[pgkdan]

Thanks! My GP and my Endocrinologist are both in my quarter and are writing letters for me. Don’t know if it will help but it can’t hurt.

[Mrs. Don-o]

"But most people would rather do anything - go through traumatic possibly fatal surgery, pay any amount, take any drug - than actually CHANGE their lifestyle."

What you seem to have overlooked here, Lizavetta, is that Gastric Bypass Surgery REQUIRES a lifelong change of lifestyle. I had the surgery on May 8. Because of the permanent, radical changes in my enteric anatomy, I will never again eat the types of foods or the amounts of foods I ate prior to my surgery.

Gastric bypass is not a one-shot deal. It is a tool --- "a" tool --- which facilitates the ongoing change of lifestyle you're talking about.

[Mrs. Don-o]

There is a cure for Type 2 Diabetes right now. I had type 2 Diabetes for 20 years, until May 8, 2008 (the date of my RNY gastric bypass). By my discharge date (2 days later) I have not had Diabetes and --- I know this from repeated blood glucose testing --- I have had no abnormal glucose levels, neither high nor low --- since the date of surgery.

Some 80% of post-gastric-bypass people never have another abnormal glucose reading for the rest of their lives.

[Mrs. Don-o]

"Surgery is not the best answer to diabetes, or even one that will work long term."

This is not what post-gastric bypass clinical data shows. Evidence? Links?

[Mrs. Don-o]

I am a postmenopausal woman and a post-op GBS. I take a daily multivitamin, extra calcium and a sublingual B-12. I did that even before surgery. It’s not a big deal.

[Mrs. Don-o]

My surgeon has had 5 deaths in the 3-months post-op period for 1,800 RNY gastric bypasses. (The deaths were all from pulmonary embolism.) That's 0.28% (zero-point-two-eight) percent. That's far outweighed by the incidence of death of similarly circumstanced, matched obese people who have not had the surgery, in EVERY category of disease, inluding the various complications of diabetes, strokes, heart attacks, and even cancer.

[Mrs. Don-o]

My surgeon has had 5 patient deaths in the 3-months post-op period for 1,800 RNY gastric bypasses. (The deaths were all from pulmonary embolism.) That's 0.28% (zero-point-two-eight) percent. That's far outweighed by the incidence of death of similarly circumstanced, matched obese people who have not had the surgery, in EVERY category of disease, inluding the various complications of diabetes, strokes, heart attacks, and even cancer.

Check out Long-Term Mortality after Gastric Bypass Surgery from The New England Journal of Medicine:

"During a mean follow-up of 7.1 years, adjusted long-term mortality from any cause in the surgery group decreased by 40%, as compared with that in the control group (37.6 vs. 57.1 deaths per 10,000 person-years, P<0.001); cause-specific mortality in the surgery group decreased by 56% for coronary artery disease (2.6 vs. 5.9 per 10,000 person-years, P=0.006), by 92% for diabetes (0.4 vs. 3.4 per 10,000 person-years, P=0.005), and by 60% for cancer (5.5 vs. 13.3 per 10,000 person-years, P<0.001).

[MortMan]

It's called lose your obesity and EAT RIGHT.

Hmmm... So the 10 years I have spent within 10 lbs of the weight I graduated high school (as a 3-sport letterman) while still suffering from type 2 simply isn't enough? The fact that I eat a balanced diet rich in veggies (with a few fruits), limited in carbs, with adequate protein and limited fats isn't enough? Or the fact that I exercise as much as I am able - right up to the point where my blood sugar plummets (with subsequent blackouts) isn't enough?

Thank you SO MUCH for offering your simple-minded solution.

[retrokitten]

On another board I frequent, one woman’s husband went in for gastric bypass, was feeling fine right after the surgery, but had a stroke a couple of days later.

Plus, we lost FReeper, texasflower, due to complications from gastric bypass surgery several years ago.

[Lizavetta]

You’re a minority. Most type 2s are fat and eat crap, and you know it. Yes, some type 2s are not. Most are. I’ll be more literal and specific next time so you can grasp what I’m saying.

[Lizavetta]

What you seem to have overlooked here, Lizavetta, is that Gastric Bypass Surgery REQUIRES a lifelong change of lifestyle.

Nonsense. My obese mother-in-law had this done years ago. She didn't change diddly. She's still obese, she still eats garbage, and in fact I would say her health is probably worse because since she must eat less she's leaving out the healthy stuff because the junk food is more appealing.

Gastric bypass TO WORK requires a lifelong change in lifestyle.

[don-o]

Well said sir. This know nothing, (who gets heartily sick of know-it-alls), salutes you!

[MortMan]

Perhaps you should look up the concept of “broad brush”. When you post using absolutes, expect to have the post read as an absolute.

And there are more of us “minority” cases than you realize - including thin chidren who are now being diagnosed. Clearly, there is some form of environmental link.

I can and will grant that many who suffer from type 2 do so in significant part because of their weight. However, I would posit that there is a significant environmental link to their cases, as well. After all, not too many years ago the obese were simply obese - and the epidemic of type 2 had not yet arisen.

This researcher may be on to something that will sort out at least one of the causes of type 2. The cure, for now, is still extreme. But understanding one of the causes because of this seminal work...

That would be priceless.

[Mrs. Don-o]

"Gastric bypass TO WORK requires a lifelong change in lifestyle."

Right you are. A person who is determined to eat themselves sick is fully capable of gaining weight post-gastric-bypass and dying obese with their mouth full of deep-fried moonpie.

[MortMan]

Thank you. She has a point - but I cannot stand the broad brush approach to much of anything except housepainting (and I don’t mean the trim!).

I know something of Type 2 because I have lived it for a dozen years. It’s no fun - but the alternative is much, much worse! ;-P

[Uri’el-2012]

Daily resistance training and low carbohydrate diet has reduced
my Blood sugar to normal levels with the help of Dr Rosedale's Diet