Aside from excessive weight an obese person struggles with other important health issues that can be deadly. Obesity gives way to many health consequences such as heart disease, sleep apnea, respiratory problems, cancer, and more. However Type 2 Diabetes, a risk factor also attributed to obesity, is one of the fastest growing diseases in America. Because obese patients have poor sensitivity to insulin, they have an even greater chance of developing the disease. Once you have diabetes there is no cure for the disease.

To decrease chances of getting the disease studies and obese person should consider weight loss surgery. Studies show weight loss surgery can improve sensitivity to insulin and help prevent Type 2 Diabetes. However, the type of weight loss surgery chosen will determine how quickly both issues are addressed.

Types of Weight Loss Surgery for Diabetes

There are different types of weight loss surgeries and while some are less invasive than others they are still just as effective.

Gastric Bypass: Having a restrictive weight loss surgery, such as gastric bypass, involves limiting the stomach size, ultimately causing the patient to eat less. Weighing less can reduce the risk of pre-diabetes in many patients.

Biliopancreatic Diversion: In contrast to gastric bypass, with malabsorptive operations such as biliopancreatic diversion, the intestines are rearranged in such a way that the patient absorbs less of what is eaten, ultimately resulting in weight loss.

Not all Surgeries are the same

New studies show that with restrictive operations, the improvement in insulin sensitivity depends on the degree of weight loss.

With gastric bypass surgeries, the patient physically cannot have as much food intake as they previously were able, while with the malabsorptive operations, normal insulin sensitivity is restored more rapidly and is not dependent on the amount of weight loss.

The findings, which appear in The American Journal of Medicine, are based on a study of 18 patients with severe obesity and 20 lean comparison subjects who underwent insulin sensitivity testing. The obese patients were treated with either gastric bypass or biliopancreatic diversion and then reevaluated 5 to 6 months and 16 to 24 months postoperatively, to be compared with the lean subjects.

Malabsorptive Surgeries Improves Insulin Sensitivity

In comparison to the lean subjects, the obese patients had very poor insulin sensitivity when the study began, senior author Dr. Ele Ferrannini, from the University of Pisa in Italy, and colleagues note. With each procedure, weight loss averaged more than 100 pounds and occurred over roughly the same time frame. However, as noted, the operations differed in their effects on insulin sensitivity.

During follow-up, a steady improvement in insulin sensitivity was seen in the gastric bypass group, but even at 16 months the sensitivity scores were still much lower than those of lean subjects. In the biliopancreatic diversion group, by contrast, insulin sensitivity normalized by 6 months and actually exceeded that of lean subjects at the 24-month follow-up, even though the subjects were still obese.

While the results suggest that biliopancreatic diversion restores insulin sensitivity more rapidly than gastric bypass, overall, the authors note that each procedure has pros and cons and that doctors should decide which to use for a particular patient on an individual basis.