clipped from: www.cnn.com   

Obesity surgery seen as potential diabetes cure

  • Study: Bariatric surgery more likely than standard care to rid patients of diabetes
  • Study is first to directly compare surgery vs. standard care in diabetes patients
  • More research needed to see how long remission lasts, who benefits most
  • Expert: "This opens an entirely new way of thinking about diabetes"

    • CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- A small new study gives the strongest evidence yet that obesity surgery can cure diabetes.

    Patients who had surgery to reduce the size of their stomachs were five times more likely to see their diabetes disappear over the next two years than were patients who had standard diabetes care, according to Australian researchers.

    Most of the surgery patients were able to stop taking diabetes drugs and achieve normal blood tests.

    Experts generally agree that weight-loss surgery would never be appropriate for diabetics who are not obese, and current federal guidelines restrict the surgery to obese people.