Treatment of Diabetes. Is It Surgery?
Diabetes is a very common disease which is widespread all over the world, can cause serious complications if not controlled in the initial stages. Nearly seven percent of the people in United States are suffering from Diabetes. Type 1 Diabetes is caused due to lack of Insulin in the body. There are Islet cells in the pancreas in the body which produce the hormone, Insulin. If the cells in the body do not react to the Insulin then Insulin can not be utilized by the cells, hence causing Type 2 diabetes.
Diabetes patients are initially treated with a healthy, well-balanced diet and regular exercising. A well-balanced diet and exercising helps in maintaining blood sugar level in the body. Regular exercise and healthy diet controls the body weight thereby controlling diabetes. If dieting and exercising do not help, than other modes of treatment like giving oral medications and Insulin shots are the next steps of the Diabetes treatment.
Weight-loss surgery is a very effective way of Diabetes treatment. People who suffer from Type 2 diabetics are more likely to respond to weight loss surgery rather than other modes of treatment. There are two categories of Weight loss surgery- gastric-bypass and lap-band surgery. It is said that diabetes patients respond fast to weight-loss surgery while it takes more time for their body to respond to any other mode of treatment. Initially, Gastric-bypass surgery was considered to be more fruitful than the lap-band surgery because there were some changes in the hormones in the body while doing the lap-band surgery.
But gradually, within short span of time, the lap-band surgery also emerged as a successful mode of treatment of diabetes like the gastric-bypass surgery. The difference between the two modes of treatment is that in the lap-band surgery, the upper area of the patient’s stomach is tied with a band of silicone while in the gastric-bypass surgery, the upper and lower parts of the stomach are equally divided, thereby making the stomach smaller. Gastric bypass surgery helps to reduce weight by absorbing lesser calories of food as the food is allowed to bypass the small intestine in this treatment.
Gastric-bypass treatment is preferred over lap-band surgery for Type 2 diabetes patients. Sources also reveal that gastric-bypass surgery treatment is given to almost 84 percent of Type 2 diabetics in United States. The death rate of people which are given gastric-bypass surgery is much less which is only 1 in 200 than the patients being treated by lap-band surgery which is 1 in 2000. The gall bladder is eliminated from the body in gastric-bypass surgery, hence it has been proved that lap-band surgery is more safer and has less side-effects than the gastric-bypass surgery.
Normally, diabetics prefer to go for Insulin shots and other oral medications. It is not obvious that a well-balanced diet and exercising will bring the required results. The lap-band surgery eliminates the need of Insulin shots, oral medications, exercising and dieting. Obese people, having mass index above 40, people with high fat and cholesterol, hypertension and Type II diabetes, can respond fast to lap-band surgery rather than other modes of treatment. Reducing weight helps diabetics control the disease more effectively. All the above mentioned methods of treatment are beneficial to almost 76% of type 2 diabetes patients.
Scientists are finding the reason for obesity being the major cause of diabetes, and the reason for weight loss being the major treatment in controlling diabetes. Insulin’s reaction in the body is stimulated by excess fat and cholesterol in the body. Tests are also being done to identify the role of fatty acids in the blood and the hormones produced by fat in the body that regulate Insulin.