A new study found that bariatric surgery reduces obese peoples' risk of becoming diabetic by 80 percent.
Professor Martin Gulliford worked with his colleagues from Public Health at King's College London, UK, in looking at electronic medical records stored from the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink. The researchers aim to determine the link between the weight loss surgery and diabetes.
Their findings showed that there were 2,167 obese adults who underwent at least one surgical weight loss procedure from 2002 to 2014. The common procedures were laparoscopic adjustable banding - which involves placing a silicone device around the stomach - sleeve gastrectomy, or removal of a large portion of the stomach, and bariatric surgery, where the stomach and small intestine is altered to make the stomach smaller.
During the follow-up period of about three years, 38 of those who had weight loss surgery were diagnosed with diabetes. Compared to the control group of 177 people, the risk of developing diabetes was reduced by as much as 80 percent.
The researchers considered other factors such as age, sex, BMI, and blood glucose control.
"Our results suggest that bariatric surgery may be a highly effective method of preventing the onset of new diabetes in men and women with severe obesity. We need to understand how weight loss surgery can be used, together with interventions to increase physical activity and promote healthy eating, as part of an overall diabetes prevention strategy," said Prof. Gulliford.
Other health experts found the results of the study significant, but warned that weight loss surgeries have risks, and some attempts have been unsuccessful. However, the research provides an option for obese people to improve their lives.
"Looking at the bigger picture, as a society we also need to focus more on stopping people becoming overweight, we need to look seriously at how we can make sure people are getting support to lose weight through access to the right services to encourage them to make healthy choices," said Simon O'Neill, the director of health intelligence at Diabetes UK, during an interview with BBC News.
Further details of the study were published in the Nov. 3 issue of The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology.
