Is Weight Loss Surgery The Answer For Overweight Diabetics?

For some diabetics, weight-loss surgery may well be the answer according to recent research. Astonishingly, it's about more than just the weight-loss according to new studies that were recently released.

Researchers from Duke University and Columbia University looked at two groups of obese diabetic patients who are at a hospital in New York. Ten of those people had a specific kind of gastric bypass surgery which reduces the size of the stomach. Eleven people were put on a strict diet. People in both groups lost from 22 to 26 pounds on the average.

During the study, scientists measured and assessed the circulating amino acids and acylcarnitines in the blood of the subjects. Previous studies had suggested that these compounds may be related to insulin resistance. Researchers found a great decrease in branched chain amino acids within one month among patients who had weight-loss surgery. The surprising part of the study was that for patients who had dietary changes the amino acids had very little or no change.


Something about the surgery, and not simply the weight-loss it caused, appears to be improving blood sugar control. Amino acids also seem to play a role in this process although it's unclear whether the amino acids actually cause lower resistance to insulin.

image courtesy of Courtesy of Ethicon Endosurgery, Inc.


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