'Rubber band' obesity surgery cuts diabetes risk

NEW YORK, May 3 (Reuters) After having ''lap band'' surgery for weight loss, men and women show large increases in sensitivity to the blood-sugar-regulating hormone insulin -- even if they remain obese -- a new study shows.

''They don't have to reach their ideal weight in order to make some pretty significant health improvements,'' Dr Joan F Carroll of the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth, one of the study's authors, told Reuters Health.

Carroll reported the findings this week at the American Physiological Society's annual meeting in Washington, DC.

In the operation Carroll and her team are investigating, known medically as laparoscopic gastric banding surgery, an elastic band is placed around the stomach, restricting the amount of food the stomach can comfortably hold. Another procedure, surgical gastric bypass, has been shown to help reduce the body's resistance to insulin -- often a prelude to full-blown diabetes -- before major weight loss has taken place, but less is known about how lap band surgery affects insulin resistance.

To investigate, Carroll and her team have been following 37 lap band patients for up to one year. Those followed for six months have lost 23 kg, on average, while average weight loss for those who have been followed for a year is 34 kg.

Their level of insulin resistance had fallen by 60 per cent after six months, she told Reuters Health, even though the patients remained clinically obese.

Given that resistance to insulin greatly increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, which has a number of other health consequences including heart disease and even amputations, ''over the long term it's really a benefit for all the body systems,'' Carroll said.

Reuters SYU GC0930