Rubber band for diabetes
A rubber band surgically wrapped around the stomach can strip most obese diabetics of the disease and weight, a world-first Australian study has found.
Lap-band surgery, designed to restrict the appetite, will clear three out of four type-2 diabetics after two years, the Royal Australasian College of Physicians’ annual conference was told.
The unpublished 60-person study found that patients who had a body mass index over 30 were able to lose 20% of their weight with the surgery. About 73% went into diabetes “remission”, meaning they no longer required drugs to manage their condition.
In contrast, obese patients who had standard intervention of medication and lifestyle changes had less weight loss and only a 13% remission rate.
More than 30% of Australians are both diabetic and obese, with experts labelling the syndrome a “ticking timebomb”.
