Nov 8, 2006 10:27 pm US/Eastern
Gastric Bypass Surgery Now Used To Help Diabetes
by Dr. Mallika Marshall
BOSTON (CBS4) ―
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An increasing number of obese diabetic patients are having gastric bypass surgery to get their weight down.
Most Americans who undergo gastric bypass surgery do it to lose weight but many patients are taking this drastic step to treat a disease that's now becoming an epidemic.
Suffering from adult onset diabetes, Terri Smith's life had become an endless ordeal of drugs and needles
"I was taking three shots a day, small syringes that I would shoot into by stomach region, 140 units of insulin a day, that's a significant amount of insulin," Smith said. "I was spending somewhere on the order $200 to $300 dollars a month out of my pocket and I have a good insurance plan."
Despite efforts to lose weight -- the scale kept creeping up. Terri got scared.
"There are complications of diabetes, and blindness is one of them, amputation of your limbs is another, but blindness is what really scared me," Smith said.
Also feeling depressed, Terri decided it was time to do something drastic like an increasing number of obese diabetic patients she had gastric bypass surgery to get her weight down
Gastric bypass is well known for weight loss. The majority of the stomach is surgically bypassed so the patient doesn't feel hungry. More and more often, diabetes is the primary reason for undergoing the procedure
"We now know that if you reverse that obesity problem, that the diabetes goes away, so the cure of diabetes has only been seen by this surgery," said Dr. Edward Mun of Faulkner Hospital.
But like any surgery -- it comes with some risk.
"Gastric bypass is the most effective but it's also the end of the line," said Dr. Lee Kaplan of Massachusetts General Hospital.
That's exactly where Terri believes she was. Although diabetes will always be part of her life, she now takes just one pill a day and she's able to exercise again.
"It saved my life, yes it did," she said.
(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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