An interesting article in the New York Times appeared in January regarding a recent scientific study, which shows that people who have been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes within the past 2 years now have a way to rid themselves of the disease, possibly for good: weight-loss surgery. The results of a clinical study comparing weight-loss surgery with conventional treatment for Type 2 diabetes show that patients that opt for stomach surgery are capable of experiencing complete remission of the disease. This form of the diabetes is typically brought on by obesity, and is usually treated with emphasis on proper diet and exercise for weight loss, as well as using diabetes medicine such as insulin. The study, the first of its kind to show a direct correlation between the popular weight-loss surgery and its potential in the fight against Type 2 diabetes, showed that out of 60 patients, 73% of those that underwent surgery showed no signs of the disease as a result.

The surgery used in the study is adjustable gastric banding, also known as lap-band surgery. This type of minimally invasive bariatric surgery involves cinching the stomach by looping a band around the top so that it forms a small pouch, which allows the patient to feel full after eating less. The surgery enabled the patient to lose weight and keep it off, which is often more difficult for those that forgo surgery. Although the link between Type 2 diabetes remission and weight-loss surgery has been known for some time, the study was significant in that it showed scientifically the possibility of treating the disease by utilizing this type of surgery as opposed to medical treatment of those with the Type 2 diabetes.

Currently, Medicare covers adjustable gastric banding and other weight-loss surgeries for those with a body mass index, or B.M.I., of 40 or more, although many private insurers refuse to cover the surgery regardless of the circumstances. News of this study, coupled with steadfast research on the physiological effect weight-loss operations such as lap-band surgery have on those suffering from Type 2 diabetes “blows away this arbitrary barrier” and may lead to the lowering of insurance cutoffs for those that are currently illegible for surgery, according to Dr. Phillip Schauer, director of the bariatric and metabolic institute at the Cleveland Clinic.

It was stressed that adjustable gastric banding would only lessen the severity or do away altogether with the disease in those that had been recently diagnosed with mild cases; those with more severe, long-term cases would not experience remission regardless of how much weight they lost. However, medical researchers and professionals remain optimistic: diabetes is the fifth-leading cause of death in the United States and kills about 73,000 people a year. Nineteen million people are currently afflicted with Type 2 diabetes, and the number of new cases is growing by about 8 percent a year, according to the American Diabetes Association. Simply put, there is no better time than the present for the advent of “diabetes surgery”, as the U.S. and the world face increasing diabetes rates and its crippling and often deadly complications.