Diabetes, Weight Loss and WLS

Before I had surgery in 2001, I was diabetic.  I was on oral medications and injections.  It was awful.  Being dependent on diabetic meds, pricking your finger multiple times a day to test your sugars, and the possible consequences of diabetes were petrifying to me.

There were many factors that caused me to make the decision to have weight loss surgery.  The emotional and physical limitations to my life were among the top reasons.  Another factor was my diabetes.   I spent Christmas the year before in the waiting room of a hospital with my best friend.  Her husband was having a kidney transplant from being severely diabetic.  He was on dialysis and had many of the effects of diabetes.  It was in the waiting room reflecting on my life and how horribly unhappy I was that I decided to seriously consider having weight loss surgery.

More than 20 million Americans have type 2 diabetes and most of them are overweight or obese.

People who lose weight soon after a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes have better control of their blood pressure and blood sugar, and are more likely to maintain that control even if they regain their weight, according to a Kaiser Permanente study published online in Diabetes Care, the American Diabetes Association journal.

This is the first clinical study to show that benefits remain even if patients regain their weight. The study followed more than 2,500 adults with type 2 diabetes for four years. Those who lost weight within an average of 18 months after diagnosis were up to twice as likely to achieve their blood pressure and blood sugar targets as those who didn’t lose weight. Those benefits can prevent diabetes-related heart disease, blindness, nerve and kidney damage, and death.

“Our study shows that early weight loss can reduce the risk factors that so often lead to diabetes complications and death,” says Dr. Adrianne Feldstein, MD, MS, the study’s lead author, a practicing physician and an investigator at Kaiser Permanente’s Center for Health Research in Portland, Ore.

This study, my own personal experience along with thousand of weight loss surgery patients I’ve worked with show that weight loss is an important component in diabetes treatment and prevention.  With this study it now appears there may be an important window of opportunity following diagnosis where some lasting changes can be obtained if people are willing to take immediate steps toward lifestyle changes.

Whether you lose weight by diet and exercise, join an organized diet program or having weight loss surgery, the positive impacts extend to improving your health in substantial ways including diabetes.

For the complete article, check it out at:

http://www.itnewsonline.com/showprnstory.php?storyid=6013

Believe In Yourself,
Cathy, CLC
Certified Life Coach, Weight Loss Surgery Coach