Bariatric Reversal: Stomach surgery curbs some patients’ diabetes
By Nathan Seppa
In obese people with diabetes, stomach surgery to control hunger may do more than induce weight loss. A study now finds it can send their diabetes into remission.
Australian researchers enlisted 60 obese people diagnosed in the previous 2 years with mild type 2, or adult-onset, diabetes. Only one study participant needed insulin. The researchers randomly assigned some participants to receive bariatric surgery along with any necessary diabetes drugs. Others got medication alone. Two years later, 22 of the 30 patients who underwent the operation showed no signs of diabetes and didn’t need diabetes drugs, compared with only 4 of the 30 assigned to medication alone, the researchers report in the Jan. 23 Journal of the American Medical Association.