Clinicians need to consider weight-loss surgery as a course of action against the biggest epidemics in human history, obesity and Type 2 diabetes, the International Diabetes Foundation says.
Bariatric surgery can put Type 2 diabetes into remission and if considered earlier in the treatment of selected patients, can help stem serious complications associated with the disease, such as blindness and amputation of limbs, the foundation said.
Traditional Type 2 diabetes treatments, such as natural weight loss and exercise, tablets and insulin injections should be tried first but weight-loss surgery should be considered sooner rather than later in treating patients with Type 2 diabetes and a body mass index (BMI) of 35 or more.
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The foundation told the second World Congress on Interventional Therapies for Type 2 Diabetes in New York on Monday that funding the weight-loss surgeries through government health budgets was cost-effective, because obese people are more likely to suffer certain types of cancer, strokes and high blood pressure.
“The combination of Type 2 diabetes and obesity, is the biggest epidemic in human history,” Professor Paul Zimmet representing the Foundation in New York told AAP on Tuesday.
Prof Zimmet, director emeritus of the Baker IDI Institute in Melbourne, said there were more than 1.5 million Australians suffering Type 2 diabetes, with the number growing every day.
He said some bariatric surgeries could put the disease into remission within hours.
“This is an option that isn’t on the usual agenda, it’s been on the radar but it has not been an integral part of the landscape for treating Type 2 diabetes,” he said.
“People should think about the potential to use surgical procedures earlier rather than later because if they have diabetes for 10 or 20 years, the procedure may not work so well.
“It’s not a public health measure but we’re saying that in selected cases, that the option should be available because poorly-controlled diabetes can result in complications.”
Funding the surgeries would put less pressure on the health budget because of the medical conditions it could cure, Prof Zimmet said.
“There have been a number of studies which show that it is actually cost effective because by losing weight, often they can stop the medication for diabetes, they’re less likely to get high blood pressure, to have heart attacks, to have sleep apnoea.”