Diabetes and Stomach Band Surgery

The report, which was about using stomach band surgery, often called lap band surgery, as a treatment for diabetes, got my attention. The results of a study done in Australia, showed that those who had lab band surgery had their Type 2 diabetes go into remission at a rate of 5 times more than those who treated their diabetes in traditional ways, i.e. diet, exercise, diabetes medication.
It was a small but definitive study, and its is getting quite a bit of attention in our national news. A manufacturer of lap bands funded the study, but had no input at all in how the study was conducted or its results.
There are many questions still to be asked and answered which will undoubtedly be the focus of future studies. For example, who would benefit the most from the surgery? How long will the lap band enable diabetes to remain in remission? Is the costs and risks of the surgery outweighed by the benefit of avoiding the health complications brought on by diabetes?

Yes, this report got my attention. However, it wasn't the study and its results alone that made me stop in my tracks. It was a comment made by the doctor presenting the information.
He said, "Diabetes is a very aggressive disease. It causes people to die at a much higher rate from heart related problems than the regular population." He continued on by discussing other serious aspects of the disease and the shortened life expectancy that diabetes brings.
That got my attention. Higher death rate. Shortened life expectancy. Aggressive disease.
I knew all of these things, but to hear them come so emphatically from this doctor's mouth brought it all to a new level of reality for me.
The other thing that got my attention was that diabetes can be cured or brought into remission for many of us simply by weight loss. In my mind that comment brought my weight loss, again, to a new level of necessity.
Another thing to win by losing. Lose weight---gain a longer life, and no diabetes complications because that disease is in remission!!!