Obesity Action Coalition Dear Doctor Can Bariatric Surgery Treat Type 2 Diabetes?

Dear Doctor -Can Bariatric Surgery Treat Type 2 Diabetes?
Answer provided by Lloyd Stegemann, MD, FASMBS
To view a PDF version of this article, click here .
Diabetes is a devastating problem worldwide. It has been estimated that as much as 8.3 percent of the worlds population has diabetes and this number is on the rise. As your weight goes up, so does your risk of developing type 2 diabetes (T2D). In fact, almost 25 percent of individuals who are affected by severe obesity (body mass index greater than 35) will carry a diagnosis of T2D. Uncontrolled diabetes leads to a host of long-term problems including heart attacks, strokes, kidney failure, blindness and the need for amputations.
For many years, bariatric surgeons have known that bariatric surgery has a profound effect on T2D. It is not uncommon for our T2D patients to come off of all of their diabetic medications after bariatric surgery. Many primary care physicians (PCP), however, have been reluctant to advise bariatric surgery as the first line of treatment for their patients affected by severe obesity with T2D because of the lack of quality studies comparing the effectiveness of medical therapy versus surgical therapy for the treatment of T2D. Two recent studies that appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine were designed to help answer this question.
In the first study, known as the STAMPEDE trial, 150 poorly controlled diabetic patients were divided randomly and equally into three groups. All of the patients in the study received intensive medical therapy including lifestyle counseling, weight managem Continue reading

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An Overview of Herbal Products and Secondary Metabolites Used for Management of Type Two Diabetes

An Overview of Herbal Products and Secondary Metabolites Used for Management of Type Two Diabetes
Department of Food Science and Technology, Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Edited by: Jianbo Xiao, University of Macau, China
Reviewed by: Bhekumthetho Ncube, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa; Ying Wang, University of Macau, China
*Correspondence: Nataa P. Ulrih, [email protected]
This article was submitted to Ethnopharmacology, a section of the journal Frontiers in Pharmacology
Received 2016 Aug 9; Accepted 2017 Jun 16.
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
This article has been cited by other articles in PMC.
Diabetes mellitus is a common effect of uncontrolled high blood sugar and it is associated with long-term damage, dysfunction, and failure of various organs. In the adult population, the global prevalence of diabetes has nearly doubled since 1980. Without effective prevention and management programs, the continuing significant rise in diabetes will have grave consequences on the health and lifespan of the world population, and also on the world economy. Supplements can be used to correct nutritional deficiencies or to m Continue reading

NZ case study; A citizen scientist controls autoimmune diabetes without insulin, with a low carb diet, a glucose meter, and metformin.

The case study is a very important type of medical publication that’s overlooked in this age of big data. Unlike large statistical studies, which tell you the probability of something happening, the case study tells you whether something CAN happen at all, and under exactly which circumstances it has happened.
Case studies answer questions like “Can autoimmune diabetes, with lower insulin production, be managed long-term without insulin?”
Yes, it can, and this is described in full detail and a clear and simple style in a new case-study from Christchurch.[1]
2017 Nelson Jacobs Case report Management of autoimmune diabetes without insulin
This is published on Zenodo.org, an online data repostitory set up by people involved in CERN and other places. Warrick Nelson, the first author is the patient and is an operations manager at Plant and Food Research in NZ. The second author is his doctor. This is citizen science. We love it.
So onto the topic of diabetes, and management of the condition with low carb diets……
We reviewed the strong evidence for low carb diets in diabetes management in the New Zealand Medical Journal in a 2016 review cited in the current paper.[2]
Its case study is a great example of how the wisdom of Citizen Scientists, equipped with mass produced measuring devices and, in this case, a proven medicine, can discover the one way to treat a disease. It is written up by the patient and his doctor, who was wise enough to recognise this as the teachable moment it is.
The patient first presented with type 2 diabetes, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, insu Continue reading

Ottawa Preteen's Sugardrop SweetwearCo. Fashionably Fighting Diabetes

Ottawa Preteen's Sugardrop SweetwearCo. Fashionably Fighting Diabetes
Kate Beaulieu, it could be said, was your usual pre-teen girl. She played basketball, loved to dance and hang out with her friends for sleepovers. Then came the Christmas where she could barely get off the couch. There was nothing usual about that. When she said she felt she wasnt feeling well enough to dance her mother knew something was wrong.
Soon came the words that would change young Kates life, words she didnt understand at first. Neither of them did.
Mom, am I going to die? she asked followed by the heart wrenching can I still dance?
The frightening reality for a parent faced with such questions from their trembling daughter was this:mom didnt have the answers.
Kate had just been told that she had Type 1 diabetes. The two stood there at the Childrens Hospital as tears began to fall. The moment between those words and what her doctor said next must have felt like an eternity. She was 11-years-old. Thats not much life to have flash before ones eyes in an instance where one her age should never be contemplating their mortality. Thankfully, they were informed, they caught it just in time but that didnt mean that Kate wasnt in for some changes.
We had to come back to CHEO the very next morning to start intensive training sessions on how to manage this disease. We met with the diabetic team - a nurse, endocrinologist, dietitian and a social worker, says Kate, remembering those first days as the news began to sink in.
Karan, her mother, was in disbelief. It had to be a mistake, she thought to her Continue reading

"Make beta cells great again:" Type 1 diabetes interventions at ADA 2017 - MedCity News

2 Comments / Jun 13, 2017 at 3:57 PM
From the perspective of patients and their families, Type 1 diabetes can feel like a sudden onset disease.
Symptoms arise seemingly out of nowhere, as the body becomes increasingly hyperglycemic. The person frequently still a child becomes extremely thirsty and urinates frequently as his or her body tries to rid itself of the excess blood glucose. Its a losing battle. The person is eventually diagnosed and prescribed a life-long plan for insulin replacement therapy.
It turns out that the patients experience is the proverbial tip of the iceberg. Biological mechanisms and autoimmunity are at play for years before symptoms appear. That raises the possibility of early intervention, prevention, or possibly even reversal of the disease if it can be caught in the earliest stages.
To that end, researchers have been piecing together the hidden progression of type 1 diabetes, as theimmune system stealthily destroys the patients insulin-producing beta cells. Those findings and the latest intervention studies were presented on Monday at the 77th Scientific Sessions of the American Diabetes Association (ADA) in San Diego, California.
During the well-attended symposium, different researchers shared data from three separate therapeutic interventions, spanning decades and using trial sites around the world.
The studies looked at preventive treatment with insulin, to try to desensitize the immune system to the hormone. Another studied the use of Gleevec (imatinib), a long-standing cancer drug with immunosuppressive properties. Finally, a t Continue reading