I am watching "Oprah" right now. She is doing a "wake-up call" show on diabetes today, mainly type 2 diabetes.

I don't know where it's going to go, but so far, it's good. Dr. Oz is the main guest to give people the brutal facts on diabetes. Lots of real info, shocking testimonials (a 44-year old NURSE who has had her feet and one leg amputated and is on dialysis, etc.), interesting video, etc. Diabetes is evil--no question.

Before my DS, I had just been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. Now my blood sugars are completely normal. I am soo grateful for this second chance at life that I am sitting here in tears. Many of my family members had type 2 diabetes, including my beloved sister who struggles every day.

The duodenal switch bariatric surgery has the highest rate of Type 2 diabetes resolution of all of the available surgeries--some say as high as 98%.

Please, look into it if you have diabetes. Check out: www.dsfacts.com for more info. There are great peer-reviewed articles on the site at:

www.dsfacts.com/Type-2-Diabetes-Cure.html

Save yourself. I am so glad I did.

Nicolle
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.Duodenal Switch Surgery Better Against Type 2 Diabetes Than Gastric Bypass

Jun 10, 2009

Over the years, gastric bypass surgery has proven an effective means of controlling-and even reversing-type 2 diabetes in
"super-obese" patients (those with a body mass index of 50 or above; usually more than 200 pounds above ideal body weight).

But now University of Chicago researchers have concluded that another type of surgery, called a duodenal switch, is even more effective at controlling such obesity-related conditions as diabetes, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure.

In gastric bypass surgery, surgeons create a small pouch that is separated from the rest of the stomach. Food bypasses the stomach, instead going through the pouch. The smaller size and capacity of the pouch lessens appetite and reduces the amount of food that the body can digest at any one time.

In contrast, duodenal switch surgery modifies the stomach itself, reshaping it into a long, narrow tube. At the same time, the small intestine is changed to reduce the amount of calories it can absorb.

Following either surgery, many obese patients are able to cease taking the medications used to treat their conditions. After tracking the results of the two types of surgery on 350 super-obese patients, however, the researchers noted that the duodenal switch had decisively better postoperative outcomes than the gastric bypass.

• One hundred percent of duodenal switch patients completely stopped taking their diabetes medications, versus 60 percent of gastric bypass patients.
• Sixty-eight percent of duodenal switch patients completely stopped taking their hypertension medications, versus 38.6 percent of gastric bypass patient
• Seventy-two percent of duodenal switch patients completely stopped taking their medications for high cholesterol, versus 26 percent of gastric bypass patients

However, one area in which the gastric bypass outperformed the duodenal switch was in the resolution of acid reflux disease. Almost 77 percent of gastric bypass patients enjoyed a cessation of the disease, versus 48.5 percent of patients undergoing duodenal switch.

One drawback to the duodenal switch is potential vitamin deficiencies or even malnutrition brought on by the modification of the small intestine's ability to absorb nutrients. Because obese people often already have pre-operative nutritional deficiencies, the University of Chicago researchers say that duodenal switch patients may routinely require vitamin supplementation. 

Results of the study were presented recently at Digestive Disease Week® 2009 in Chicago.

I don't suppose WLS was mentioned at all?

Not in the first 45 minutes I saw today. Gee, maybe it was the finale? LOL

Nicolle

If it is mentioned  you'll have to scrape me off the floor.  I am so tired of hearing over and over there is no cure for diabetes even though they officially decided that WLS was a cure for diabetes.  My greatest hope is that possibly because Dr. Oz is doing some stuff with Carnie that he'll get a little more educated about the whole process.  I can always hope. 

I read Dr Oz's You On a Diet and he actually does have a pretty positive attitude toward bariatric surgery, although he doesn't seem to quite understand the mechanics of every surgery.  It would be nice if Oprah let him actually SAY this on TV.  I get so sad when I hear "there's no cure for diabetes" when WLS is effectively a cure for so many.  I hope it loses more stigma as the years pass and even those who are not MO can have the option of surgical treatment for diabetes.

I hear it so often about there's no cure.  I heard it on The View when Sherry was trying to lose weight.  I see commercials for diabetic cereal, diabetic cookbooks...things you would have never seen before and I too look forward to the day when those that aren't MO can also take advantage of the cure.  Perhaps Dr. Oz is between a rock and a hard place.  Oprah gave him his shot but she's so very anti WLS.  I hope that with his show and a little more freedom that he'll come around.  Again, I don't care that Oprah supports it...I just want to see some success stories.  I've been writing the Oprah show for years where it asks for weight loss success stories.  Of course since I had fake weight loss, it was never considered!

You know, my surgeon said something really interesting once: The lower part of the DS is the "cure" part of the surgery, so you can leave the stomach intact and just rearrange the intestines to cure normies of diabetes.  I think he said that they were already doing it in Europe but he doubted that it would ever get approved by the FDA in the U.S. because diabetes is such a huge industry the lobbyists would never allow it.

Yes, they've been doing this is Europe for years now---and about a year ago, someone here in the US took on 10 or 12 patients for this 'experimental' cure. I've been anxiously awaiting some reports.

Dr. Baltasar's website discusses the 'Switch' alone for the non-obese diabetic.

I believe the "switch" alone for diabetes is currently in trials here in the US. I do know of some people who have traveled to Spain, though, to have it done when they were not obese, so they did not have the stomach part. It worked.

EDIT: Oh, and the FDA does not approve surgical procedures, so they're not the roadblock here. I would point the finger at the pharmaceutical industry first and foremost.

That's really exciting that it's in trials!

Let's hope the pharmaceutical industry doesn't kill it?