March
2010
Type 2 – gastro bypass?5
My sister has had type 2 for a few years. It was not in the family, yet she is otherwise a candidate, due to weight, diet and exercise. She controled her diabetes with diet and medication. She has never had out of control blood sugars, and her diabetes is managed with minimal effort/medication.
Six months ago, she had a gastric bypass. Suddenly her medication was negatively affecting her blood sugars. As she reduced her medication, her BS stabalized. With her doctor’s monitoring, she has been med-free for four months.
So I have two questions:
1.) I’m a parent to a type 1 child, and thought I was pretty fluent on diabetes. I haven’t heard of this before and it made my jaw drop. Has anyone heard of a surgery ridding the body of diabetes (other than islet cell transplant or pancreas transplant)? Tell me your story/knowledge on the subject. Is it specific to type 2?
2.) What does this tell scientists and doctors about a cure? Does it put it more within reach?
Drs David Cummings and David Flum of the University of Washington wrote an editorial to the Journal of the American Medical Assoc. about the gastric bypass surgery usually cures Type ll in about 80 percent of the patients…also, it can eliminate having to take blood pressure meds. I have Type II and I will be having the GB 2-25-08. It is the Lifestyle change that takes place when you have GB.

