Gastric bypass surgery has a miraculous effect on 80 percent of recipients also suffering from type 2 diabetes. Within two or three days after surgery to reduce the size of their stomachs and small intestines, their type 2 diabetes disappears. Poof ... just like that. Mysteriously, it occurs before any weight loss. This is striking, considering type 2 diabetes develops in 95 percent of morbidly obese people.
A research team at Swansea University in Wales is on the hunt to find out why. They are focusing on a protein, Glucagon Like Peptide (GLP-1), which is produced in the small intestine. Dr. Stephens from the research team explains that overweight people with type 2 tend to have lower levels of GLP-1, and the research is measuring whether GLP-1 levels return to normal following bariatric surgery. The researchers want to know if the surgery restores the production of GLP-1, and if so, why.
Dr. Stephens believes their efforts will not only help medicine understand how type 2 diabetes develops in overweight people, it can also provide new evidence for the development of a non-surgical treatment. Read more at News Medical-Net.
