YES! An actual cure for diabetes.
When
looking at the typical bariatric surgeries there are many benefits to a
Type II diabetic but one stands out above and beyond the rest!
Duodenal Switch.
Lap
bands have an extremely high failure rate, I sincerely wish the FDA
would take them off the market. Bands have been around since the 1970s
and the stats are no better today with new technology than they were in
the 70s. Diabetes remission is going to be temporary due to faulty bands
needing to be removed.
Sleeves,
diabetes usually improves drastically by about 10 days to 2 months post
op, (my experience with patients). Again, remission but not a cure.
RNY-
A Welsh study that came out about 5 years ago or so shows that diabetes
goes into remission in 80+% of patients within 10 days of surgery. It
is due to the change in the hormonal chain reaction in the gut due to
surgery. However, with bypass diabetes comes back in 1/3 of bypass
folks.
Duodenal
Switch, whole different ballgame. 98.9% of patients experience a cure
before they ever leave the hospital. Not remission, a cure.
Check it out:
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Diabetes Cure with Duodenal Switch
Diabetes Cure with Duodenal Switch
Obesity
is the leading cause of Type II diabetes mellitus (adult onset
diabetes) in the United States. With sufficient weight loss, diabetes
will in most cases improve or resolve. Walter Poires, M.D. published in
2004 a study outlining the improvement in Type II diabetes after
Roux-En-Y gastric bypass. Since we began performing the Duodenal Switch
(DS) in 1993, we have observed that the majority of our patients
following their DS for their morbid obesity have had their diabetes
cured immediately following the surgery. In fact, we have seen a
remarkable 97% recovery rate for our patients with diabetes. Many of our
patients discontinue their insulin and/or oral hypoglycemic medications
prior to their hospital discharge.
This
phenomenon of immediate cure of the diabetes following the DS is, in
large part, due to the intestinal rearrangement that is a component of
the procedure. We have found that the improvement in and cure of Type II
diabetes mellitus following weight loss surgery is, by far, most
dramatic following the Duodenal Switch. We routinely perform the DS
laparoscopically (LapDS) since we pioneered this minimally invasive
approach in 1999.
Below
is a chart outlining the differences following weight loss surgery in
the cure and or reduction of diabetes and other serious morbid obesity
related diseases reported by Harvey Buchwald, M.D. in his meta analysis
published in 2004. In this study over 20,000 postoperative bariatric
patients were followed for up to 13 years.
Obesity Related Illnesses that Improved/Resolved Following Weight Loss Surgery:
Diabetes Mellitus :
Gastric Band 47.9%
RnY (gastric bypass) 83.7%
Duodenal Switch 98.9%
Buchwald, H. Bariatric Surgery, A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. JAMA, October 13, 2004-Vol 292, No. 14
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One
interesting issue to note, when people have bypass (RNY) only 80+% go
into "remission" and diabetes comes back with or without regain in 33%.
However, with DS.... regain or no regain it's a "cure" 98.9% of the time.
This
is why DS is being tested in Europe on normal size BMI folks with out
of control diabetes. Insulin is no longer effective for this population.
Stem
Cell therapy is also proving to be an amazing thing for Type I and Type
II diabetics. Within a couple of months of the first treatment many
Type I diabetics have a drastically lower dose of insulin and with a 2nd
treatment many are off all medications completely for diabetes. For the
first time since childhood these people are off insulin completely.
There
are a couple of downsides to stem cell treatments. Much research still
needs to be done. If someone has any tumors (cancer) existing the stem
cells will go to the tumors instead of the pancreas and help the tumors
grow like crazy. Also, stem cells only last about 2 years or so for
diabetes and must be repeated. But stem cell therapy is the only known
treatment for pancreatic disease causing diabetes and DS is the only
known cure for Type II.