Study Suggests Weight-Loss Surgery May Lower Risk for Type 2 Diabetes
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Victor_69/iStockphoto/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — Researchers in the United Kingdom believe they have found evidence that weight-loss surgery may help to cut a patient’s risk of developing type 2 diabetes by up to 80 percent.
The study, published in the journal Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology, looked at nearly 4,400 obese patients divided up evenly based on whether they had had weight-loss surgery. Seven years after having the surgery, only about 4.3 percent of those patients had developed type 2 diabetes. Of the individuals who had not had surgery, 16.2 percent developed type 2 diabetes in that same time span.
Researchers say the study shows a link between modern weight-loss surgery and reduced diabetes risk.
Diabetes was the seventh-leading cause of death in the U.S. in 2010.
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