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BARIATRIC SURGERY:
You and Americana WellCareCR's Doctors Will Decide Whether It's Right For You

You may be the ideal candidate for bariatric (weight-loss) surgery to cure diabetes and/or reduce obesity.

Pro golfer John Daly (before left, after lower right) lost 115 pounds following weight-loss surgery in February 2009. Daly is now promoting the operation. "Your self-esteem gets better," he said. "This is the greatest technology that anyone can have."

Just as important, bariatric surgery WILL ALSO cure Type 2 diabetes in both obese and non-obese patients with an almost 90% success rate.

Bariatric surgery as a weight-loss procedure is already a widespread procedure in the U.S. and Canada for those with a Body Mass Index (BMI) of over 30. According to the Centers for Disease Control and prevention of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Body Mass Index (BMI) is a number calculated from a person's weight and height. It is used to screen for weight categories that may lead to health problems such as diabetes. The primary risk factor for Type 2 diabetes is obesity, and 90% of all patients with Type 2 diabetes are overweight or obese.

Calculating your BMI is simple. Click here. If your BMI is over 30, no matter whether you sufffer from diabetes or not, bariatric surgery — a gastric sleeve — in Costa Rica is a very attractive weight-loss/cure diabetes option. If you have diabetes and your BMI is under 30, bariatric surgery — specifically, a gastric bypass — may definitely be right for you.

The U.S. National Institutes of Health recommends bariatric surgery for obese people with a BMI of at least 40, and for people with BMI>35 and serious coexisting medical conditions such as diabetes.

However, if your BMI is under 30, you CAN'T get any bariatric surgery in the United States or Canada at all. That may well change, but it will take a while. Fifty science and medical diabetes experts representing 22 international organizations, including the American Diabetes Association, the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery, Diabetes United Kingdom, The Obesity Society and the European Association for the Study of Diabetes, recently issued a consensus statement that calls for bariatric surgery to be used as a treatment for Type 2 diabetes. The statement, published online at the end of 2009 in the Annals of Surgery, is seen by attendees at the recent Diabetes Surgery Summit in Rome as the precursor to the establishment of a new medical discipline: 'diabetes surgery'.

WHAT IS DIABETES?

So what exactly is diabetes? In freshman-biology terms, it's a disease of the hormone insulin. Secreted by your pancreas, insulin moves glucose — the form of sugar your body uses for energy — from your bloodstream into your cells. Problems arise, however, when, often due to excessive weight gain, your cells start to become resistant to the effects of insulin. (It knocks, no one answers.) As a result, more insulin is required to dispose of the same amount of glucose. (The knock becomes a loud banging.) This condition, called insulin resistance, is the first stage of Type 2 diabetes.

According to the American Diabetes Assocation, Type 2 diabetes (what used to be called 'adult onset diabetes') is the most common form of diabetes. Millions of Americans have been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, and many more are unaware they are at high risk. Some groups have a higher risk for developing Type 2 diabetes than others. Type 2 diabetes is more common in African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans and Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders, as well as the aged population.

Although not an infectious disease, diabetes seems to be spreading like one, as this cartoon from Diabetes Health correctly alludes to. Since 1980, its prevalence in the United States has risen by 47 percent, a trend which is expected to take a space-shuttle trajectory in the next decade. It is also increasing world-wide. The projections indicate that 330,000,000 people will suffer from diabetes by 2025.

Diabetes often goes undiagnosed because many of its symptoms seem so harmless. Recent studies indicate that the early detection of diabetes symptoms and treatment can decrease the chance of developing the complications of diabetes.

Type 2 Diabetes Symptoms*

Type 2 diabetes symptoms may develop very slowly. In fact, you can have Type 2 diabetes for years and not even know it. Look for:

*Often people with Type 2 diabetes have no symptoms

Diabetes was the seventh leading cause of death listed on U.S. death certificates in 2006. This ranking is based on the 72,507 death certificates in 2006 in which diabetes was listed as the underlying cause of death. According to death certificate reports, diabetes contributed to a total of 233,619 deaths in 2005, the latest year for which data on contributing causes of death are available. Diabetes kills more people every year than breast cancer and AIDS combined. Also, diabetes is the leading cause of death by disease in Canada.

Diabetes is the leading cause of blindness in people between 25 and 74, as well as the leading cause of heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, blindness, and amputation. Hearing loss is about twice as common in adults with diabetes compared to those who do not have the disease, according to a new study funded by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH).