Dec 2, 2008 11:07 pm US/Eastern
Gastric Bypass May Be A Solution To Diabetes
(CBS)
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John Derocker had gastric bypass surgery, making his stomach too small to overeat. And Derocker was not greatly overweight before having the surgery.
AP
Diabetes is a disease that can hurt you in so many ways causing heart disease, stroke or kidney failure. And the rate of new cases has doubled in the past 10 years.
That has some Twin Cities researchers thinking it's time for drastic action.
John Derocker owns a thriving tech firm and he's a man on the go. But he hated having to slam on the brakes four times a day for insulin injections.
"All that mattered to me was to get off insulin," he said. Derocker has had adult, or Type 2, diabetes for about eight years.
"I've seen and heard of other people losing their feet, their toes, eyesight. So, this was a no-brainer for me," said Derocker.
He lost 70 pounds in four months and he may have lost his disease. But it's not why, but how Derocker lost the weight that is raising eyebrows.
He had gastric bypass surgery, making his stomach too small to overeat. And Derocker was not greatly overweight before having the surgery.
In fact, bypass isn't even recommended until a person's body mass index, BMI, hits 35. However, in the U.S., diabetes often kicks in with a BMI of 31.
"Look at your belly. Look at that tire around the middle. That's the killer," said Dr. Sayeed Ikramuddin, who used a minimally invasive, laproscopic technique to perform Derocker's gastric bypass.
Ikramuddin is one of several researchers around the world investigating if bypass may be the solution for patients whose BMI is below 35 and whose blood sugars are stubbornly high.
A normal score, according to a blood test called an A1C, is a 6. Derocker's was 11, and his diabetes was out of control.
"It is impossible when you have a hemoglobin A1C of 8 or 9 or 10 and you're on insulin that stimulates appetite and makes you gain weight," said Ikramuddin.
After his bypass Derocker is off blood pressure medication for the first time in 20 years.
"Normal blood pressure. Normal A1C. Normal glucose. Love it," he said.
Fellow researcher Dr. John Bantle said there are millions of Americans like Derocker struggling with diabetes.
"Something like 9.3 percent of adults in the U.S. have diabetes. And this increase in the national prevalence of diabetes is driven by our national increase in weight," said Bantle, a University of Minnesota endocrinologist.
That is why losing enough weight to curb diabetes is the focus of their study, through either intensive medical management or gastric bypass surgery.
"But there are also risks to surgery and that has to be weighed in the equation too. We have to see how those things turn out in terms of the long-term outcomes," Bantle said.
For Derocker, the short-term outcome has him hoping everyone in the study fares as well as he has by avoiding diabetes side effects and many of the disease's expenses.
"Why would an insurance company spend millions on insulin when you can spend $30,000 and be done?" asked Derocker.
The $30,000 Derocker refers to is the approximate cost for the bypass surgery. Although for study volunteers, the costs are covered. And they're still recruiting patients with Type 2 diabetes, who have a BMI of 30 to 35.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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