CLEVELAND, Ohio. (Ivanhoe Newswire)— Every year in the United States, 1.5 million people over the age of 18 are diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, which is sometimes managed with insulin. Now, researchers at the Cleveland Clinic are studying the impact of bariatric weight loss surgery on people with type 2 diabetes and detailing the health benefits years after, STAMPEDE!
Father George Treff has been an ordained priest in the Romanian Orthodox church since 1979.
“I just knew that the path I was going on was not a good one and the outcome was not going to be good,” Father Treff told Ivanhoe.
Father Treff isn’t talking about his faith, but his weight. At his heaviest, Father Treff weighed 240 pounds and was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.
“Even if I was in the gym every day at three hours a day and doing all that I’m supposed to, nothing was changing,” explained Father Treff.
That’s when his doctor recommended bariatric surgery. Cleveland Clinic researcher Ali Aminian, M.D., was a co-investigator of the STAMPEDE trial, a randomized trial of 150 patients comparing bariatric surgery with medical therapy for the treatment of type 2 diabetes.
“We showed that both surgical procedures, gastric bypass, and sleeve gastrectomy were superior in terms of weight loss and diabetes control compare with medical management,” detailed Dr. Aminian.
Father Treff had gastric bypass and was part of the STAMPEDE study. He dropped more than 100 pounds and no longer needs insulin. Father Treff hit an all-time low weight of 135. He said his faith and his parishoners are a source of support.
“And they see me at events, and some will say, ah, you lost more weight,” exclaimed Father Treff.
In the most recent published study, researchers say patients who had bariatric surgery reported more energy, less body pain, and better physical health than patients who had medical treatment alone for diabetes.
Contributors to this news report include: Cyndy McGrath, Executive Producer and Field Producer; and Roque Correa, Editor.
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MEDICAL BREAKTHROUGHS
RESEARCH SUMMARY
TOPIC: STAMPEDE: NO INSULIN NEEDED AFTER BARIATRIC SURGERY
REPORT: MB #4994
BACKGROUND: Gastric bypass is surgery that changes how your stomach and small intestine handle the food you eat. After surgery, your stomach will be smaller, and you will feel full after eating less food. The food no longer gets absorbed into some parts of your stomach and small intestine. Because of this, your body will not get all the calories from the food you eat resulting in weight loss. With open gastric bypass surgery, a surgeon makes a large surgical cut to open your belly, and the bypass is done by working on the stomach, small intestine, and other organs. Another surgery uses a tiny camera, called a laparoscope that is placed in the belly to allow the surgeon to see inside. The advantages of laparoscopy over open surgery include shorter hospital stay and quicker recovery, less pain, smaller scars, and a lower risk of getting a hernia or infection.
(Source: https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/007199.htm)
BARIATRIC SURGERY HELPS TREAT DIABETES: Doctors have found that weight-loss surgery can treat type 2 diabetes by controlling the level of sugar in the blood. If the body does not make insulin or enough insulin, the glucose cannot get to the cells and therefore stays in the blood. People who are severely obese have 10 times the risk of developing diabetes. Most patients lose 50 to 80 percent of excess weight during the 18-24 months after surgery. However, the effects on blood sugar are immediate, or within days, after surgery. People who have this surgery can reduce or eliminate diabetes medications. Complete resolution of diabetes is more common among people who have a form of diabetes that does not require medication and who have had diabetes less than five years. Resolution is also more common among people who have more weight loss after surgery.
NEW ENDOSCOPIC PROCEDURE: A multidisciplinary Michigan Medicine program performed innovative weight-loss treatments using noninvasive techniques called endoscopic bariatric and metabolic therapies. The procedures significantly reduced a patient’s stomach volume or altered other parts of the digestive tract to treat obesity and other metabolic diseases. Unlike traditional bariatric surgery, an endoscopic bariatric procedure is performed using a small, flexible scope inserted through the patient’s mouth. It is less invasive, which helps reduce the risk of complications, and can help sustain greater success in keeping the weight off than lifestyle interventions or medications. Allison R. Schulman, M.D., MPH, director of bariatric endoscopy at the University of Michigan, says, “These types of minimally-invasive procedures have the potential to truly impact the treatment of obesity by expanding the population of treatable patients.”
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FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THIS REPORT or STAMPEDE, PLEASE CONTACT:
CAROLINE AUGER
If this story or any other Ivanhoe story has impacted your life or prompted you or someone you know to seek or change treatments, please let us know by contacting Marjorie Bekaert Thomas at mthomas@ivanhoe.com
