Stephen Lau

Thursday Jan 5, 2012 (foodconsumer.org) -- Gastric bypass surgery helps some but not as many as 80 percent of diabetes patients as reported earlier. Researchers from Imperial College London, UK, said that only 41 percent of patients achieve remission using more stringent criteria.

"Diabetes is a chronic, multisystem disease. Stomach surgery may not mean that patients can stop taking diabetes medication, but surgery and medication together achieve better results than either treatment on its own," said Dr Carel le Roux, senior author of the study.

Obesity is a major risk factor for type 2 diabetes mellitus, so weight loss surgery is not a cure for type 2 diabetes but a way to improve blood sugar control, which helps to cut the tie between type 2 diabetes mellitus and obesity.

It is estimated that 285 million people live with this disease in 2010 worldwide, and 80 percent of them are overweight or obese at the time of diagnosis.

The scientists used the new criteria, defined by the American Diabetes Association, to reassess the effectiveness of three types of weight loss surgery on 209 patients. The results showed that the remission rate was 41 percent for gastric bypass.

"Using the new criteria, we don't get such eye-catching figures as some that have been quoted in recent years," Dr Carel le Roux added.

Weight loss helps prevent diabetes, which is believed to affect 26 million Americans.  A balanced diet, regular physical activity and blood sugar management are also important to diabetics.