A new study shows diabetics undergoing bariatric surgery typically no longer need to take insulin and other medications controlling blood sugar, Dow Jones Newswires reports.
Nearly three-quarters of obese patients diagnosed with type 2 were off the medicine within six month of the weigh-loss surgery, according to the research carried out at Johns Hopkins University and published in the Archives of Surgery.
In light of the findings, the researchers say, insurers should now cover the $30,000 procedure because it appears to be the only treatment resulting in sustained reversal of obesity as well as type 2 diabetes.
Many patients were able to halt their medications almost immediately after the surgery and before they lost large amounts of weight. Those results help to confirm the theory that stomach hormones altered by surgery become more effective in controlling blood glucose levels than weight loss by itself.
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