Doctors followed nearly 5,000 people as part of a trial to assess the health impact of the procedure. The results, published in the Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology journal, showed an 80% reduction in type 2 diabetes in those having surgery. The UK NHS is considering offering the procedure to tens of thousands of people to prevent diabetes.
Obesity and type 2 diabetes are closely tied – the bigger someone is, the greater the risk of the condition. The inability to control blood sugar levels can result in blindness, amputations and nerve damage. Around a tenth of NHS budgets are spent on managing the condition.
The study followed 2,167 obese adults who had weight loss, known as bariatric, surgery. They were compared to 2,167 fellow obese people who continued as they were. There were 38 cases of diabetes after surgery compared with 177 in people left as they were,a reduction of nearly 80%.
Around 3% of morbidly obese people develop type 2 each year, however, surgery reduced the figure to around 0.5%, which is the background figure for the whole population.