Could gastric bypasses help cure some cases of diabetes? According to a story in newspaper the Daily Mail, a patient with type 2 diabetes who was morbidly obese had a gastric bypass in a last ditch attempt to lose weight. The patient had to inject himself four times a day to deliver 130 units of insulin.

Weight loss from gastric bypass operations is not expected to kick in for a few weeks however the patient found an unexpected side-effect the day after surgery instead of his normal 130 units of insulin, he needed just 15 units to control his blood sugar levels. Within a fortnight, he had stopped injecting insulin altogether and was on just two tablets a day to help control his diabetes.

Diabetes is a condition that affects many people and there is a greater chance of getting diabetes if you are obese. The recommended treatment is weight loss and exercise, with drug treatments for those who don’t respond. For some who struggle to lose the weight, they may turn to gastric bypass surgery.

The interesting side effect is possible down to the weight loss surgery resetting the metabolism. It is theorized that the surgery kick-starts the pancreas making it release more insulin as well as making the cells in the body more sensitive to insulin.

Aside from curing or improving diabetes, gastric bypass operations can also help reduce blood pressure and reduce the levels of dangerous fats in the bloodstream. With some patients seeing immediate reductions in their diabetes symptoms, some researchers are wondering if weight reduction surgery could become a common option for treating diabetes a recent study showed that 75% of patients who went in for a gastric bypass operation with diabetes saw their diabetes go into remission after surgery, compared with just 10% of those on conventional treatments.

The worry here is that people will see gastric bypass surgery as the ‘cure’ for diabetes and scientists have warned that diabetes cannot be cured, merely managed and that gastric bypass surgery is major cosmetic surgery and therefore carries great risks and should only be considered as a last resort for losing weight.