Surgical intervention in the fight against obesity will help cure diabetes, a statement made by Australian scientists.

Patients who undergo surgery to reduce the size of the stomach are 5 times more likely to be able to cure diabetes over the next two years than those who have been treated in a standard way, say scientists.

The study involved 55 people with obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus, whose average age was 47 years. One part of the patients underwent laparoscopic gastric banding surgery. This is a sufficient effective method of treating alimentary-constitutional obesity, which allows the vast majority of patients to achieve an adequate reduction in body weight. The remaining patients were given dietary advice and increased physical activity.

Scientists observed patients for two years.

During this period, patients who underwent a weight loss operation lost an average of about 21 kilograms, and patients from the control group lost about 1.5 kilograms. Blood tests showed a remission of diabetes in 22 of the 29 participants who underwent the operation, and only one of the 26 participants in the control group.

According to researcher David Cummings, physicians are used to treating diabetes as a chronic progressive disease, but these operations give real hope to the possibility of healing for many diabetics.

Medicinform. Net.

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