Researchers in Australia are jumping up and down like kangaroos in excitement over new data that suggests that obesity surgery can eliminate diabetes far more effectively than other treatments. Dr. John Dixon of Monash University Medical School in Melbourne led a study that found that those Type 2 diabetes patients who had stomach-reducing operations were five times more likely to be diabetes free within two years than those who merely maintained a regimen of standard diabetes care. Of the 55 patients in the study, 29 underwent obesity surgery, and of those, 22 tested negative for diabetes two years later. Of the 26 patients who didn’t have the surgery, only four achieved similar remission.
Obesity poses a primary risk factor for diabetes, and so losing weight is key to controlling the disease. Patients in the non-surgical group lost weight by instituting lifestyle changes, but they didn’t lose nearly as much as those who had the surgery. And those who lost the most weight, ostensibly, became diabetes-free the quickest.
“[Obesity surgery is] the best therapy for diabetes that we have today, and it’s very low risk,” said study director Dixon in a CNN report. Dr. David Cummings of the University of Washington in Seattle adds, “We have traditionally considered diabetes to be a chronic, progressive disease…But these operations really do represent a realistic hope for curing most patients.”
Is it just me, or doesn’t it seem counter-intuitive to address a metabolic disease like diabetes by hacking away at the body with a scalpel?
First, let’s look at the surgical risk factor. The research subjects in Australia underwent a procedure called stomach banding, in which a silicone band gets implanted around the upper stomach, limiting how much food patients can eat. Stomach banding incurs a fatality rate of one per 1000 operations and is the preferred obesity surgery in Australia. The US medical community usually opts for the more dangerous–and incidentally more expensive (i.e., more profitable) gastric bypass surgery — with a death rate of one in 200. In bypass surgery, the stomach gets divided into two sections, with one made into a small pouch that’s “stapled” off, thus limiting the amount of food that can be eaten. At the same time, the small intestines are shortened and attached to the pouch.
Many believe the fatality rate for gastric bypass surgery actually is much higher than commonly quoted. In older patients who undergo the surgery, the fatality rate soars to 50 percent. Given that most Type 2 diabetes patients fall into the “older” category, these figures hardly inspire confidence. I tend to side with those who claim that death rates from these procedures are underreported– I personally know of two people who died after gastric bypass surgery.
Potential complications (other than dying) include severe malabsorption of nutrients, malnutrition, bleeding, infection, anemia, gallstones, unstoppable vomiting, and so on. And, for all this risk, the surgery doesn’t last. Many patients experience disintegration of the bypass modifications over time. Staples decay, bands closing off the stomach fall apart, the stomach pouch stretches back to its original size, stomach contents leak into the abdomen. When these things occur, the operation must be reversed. What happens to the diabetes risk factor then?
In fact, bypass surgery doesn’t cure diabetes — it simply postpones the appearance of symptoms. Unless you address the actual causes of the disease, all you’ve done is delayed the reckoning. To be diabetes-free, you have to employ a multi-faceted approach–and bypass surgery ain’t one of those facets. In addition to changing your diet and losing weight, you need to:
- Inhibit absorption of high glycemic foods
- Naturally reverse insulin resistance
- Repair beta cells in the islets of Langerhans in the pancreas to optimize insulin production
- Lower blood sugar levels
- Protect organs and proteins from damage caused by elevated levels of insulin and sugar.
The bottom line is that bypass surgery puts you at considerable risk, particularly if you’re over 50, and still leaves you vulnerable to diabetes damage. As with most other health issues, you need to take a systemic approach — not a magic bullet.
:hc
Hi Jon, I would like to go into more detail with my success. I will actually start writing a long report, otherwise I feel my story will be lost. In short I cured myself of Type 2 last year. A major part was losing 12kg. Since then I have plateaued but intend to go to next level to achieve a lower target weight I have set for myself. I also feel now in retrospect that it was also a combination of other changes. I started getting my amalgams out. Am yet to get a quarter of my mouth done. Also I feel that removing toxins via fasting and bentonite (removed mercury and other stuff probably poisoning my pancreas and liver). With my system getting better at managing my body and me treating it a little better, I think it has responded.
I have a friend who just got banded. He has lost 11kg total now, 5 before the op to reduce size of liver and 6 since. He is essentially on a liquid diet, so of course he will lose weight. I could go on, but I’m sure you see also my frustration with the scamming and misinformation of the media and so-called “professionals” who get funded to say what the drug and hospital companies want so they get more profits.
Ant
PS I love your newsletters!!
PPS I love your Lessons from Miracle Drs book-it’s the best health book ever. I will be printing & binding it as a gift to all close family & friends for their birthdays!!!!
Dietbetes
* Inhibit absorption of high glycemic foods
* Naturally reverse insulin resistance
* Repair beta cells in the islets of Langerhans in the pancreas to optimize insulin production
* Lower blood sugar levels
* Protect organs and proteins from damage caused by elevated levels of insulin and sugar.
DEAR JON,
THE ABOVE MENTIONED POINTS ARE MENTIONED BY YOU STATING THAT THESE WILL REVERSE “”THE ECHOES”” OF DIABETES……….COULD U SIMPLIFY THE ABOVE MENTIONED POINTS IN “”LAY MAN’S LANGUAGE””
I WILL TRULY APPRECIATE IT FOR eg:””LOWER BLOOD SUGAR LEVELS””, “”REPAIR BETA CELLS”” ETC ETC …….HOW DOES ONE DO THAT !!!!
PLS HELP ME
REGARDS
PRAVIN SIMONS
Pravin:
If you follow the links in the blog, you get to the newsletter on diabetes. That newsletter explains the echo effect in detail and in layman’s terms. It also lays out in detail all of the steps you can take to address the issue. It’s all there.
Hi Jon
Hope you can help, I’m Diabetic Type 1
I’v been controling it through my FOOD intake,Reduced my blood sugars, over the past 14 months from 17+ to as low as 2.2, I had come down a little to low,I’v got back up to average of 3.7-5.2 I’v also made a number of Life changes: No Sugar ever! oop’s apart from the natural in my 5 fruits Daily,I was a Meat eater,not much good at all with the Greens,I dont Drink alchohol at all Stopped smoking 5yrs ago,I also Excercise Twice Daily,Swim,Cycle,Ultratone regime,Inversion Therapy,and Treadmill,it all = 5miles a Day by 2 by 7 Days a Week.
My Daily Menu: Breakfast 30grams Bran flakes.
1wholmeal Role&tea.
Lunch Hot oat’s milk cold meat sandwich.
Mid Afternoon 5 portions of mixed fruit,Orange, Apple,grapes,Banana etc.
Evening Meal Fish or Meat+Potatoes.
Supper W/meal Toast&Tea.
Jon what I hope you can suggest for Me is 3-4 Nutricious Fruit Drink’s or Shakes per Day instead of my present Daily Menu.
I’m realy after any FruitFast Drink’s You can sugest Based on Your Supperior Knowledge.
Jon, Best Regard’s at all time’s.
From Jimmy Pollock.
Dr Roy Taylor of Newcastle
Dr Roy Taylor of Newcastle University England found that it was the diets that bariatric patients were put on that reversed their diabetes, albeit temporarily, not the surgery itself. The pancreas was fatty before the op, blocked and underproducing insulin, but this was remedied by the post op diet and the pancreas recovered.