Health & Wellness Magazine Live + Thrive Magazine - Summer 2018 | Page 26

Personalized S
IS A
IT WAS REPORTED by the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention that, in 2016,
29 million adults in the United States had
diabetes. Of those, the overwhelming majority
had Type 2 diabetes. There are a number of
strategies individuals have chosen to help
improve their symptoms and manage their
illnesses, including physical activity, dietary
changes, medications, the introduction of
vitamins and micronutrients, and bariatric
surgery.
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In terms of surgery, obese patients presenting
with Type 2 diabetes who receive a laparoscopic
gastric bypass and sleeve gastrectomy have
shown a remission of diabetes in 30% to 80%
of cases. Unfortunately, more than half of
those remissions will eventually relapse. The
causes of those relapses are varied but often
fall into a few categories: not following proper
protocols following the surgery, nutrient
deficiencies, working back into overeating,
adopting unhealthy habits, not replacing old
habits with newer and healthier ones, and
many others.
Currently, there is no real consensus on
preoperative predictors of Type 2 diabetes
remission. It seems to be just a game of chance
in most cases, unfortunately. One thing that
is well known, however, is that bariatric
surgery puts patients at an increased risk of
micronutrient deficiencies. Those deficiencies
can negatively affect glucose metabolism and
insulin resistance, thus potentially correlating to
the remission rates of diabetes. To counteract
this, surgeons usually recommend over-the-
counter (OTC) supplementation.