By Mark Hyman, MD

Two seemingly groundbreaking studies, published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that type 2 diabetes, or “diabesity,” could be cured with gastric bypass surgery. The flurry of media attention and medical commentary hail this as a great advancement in the fight against diabetes. The cure was finally discovered for what was always thought to be a progressive incurable disease. But is this really a step backwards? Yes, and here’s why.

For Diabetes Treatment
Dietary and Lifestyle Changes
Are More Effective Than Surgery

No one is asking the most obvious question. How did the surgery cure the diabetes? Did the surgeons simply cut out the diabetes like a cancerous tumor? No. The patients in the studies changed their diet. They changed what they put in their stomach and that’s something that doesn’t require surgery to change.

If they had surgery and they didn’t stop binging on donuts and soda, they would get violently ill and vomit and have diarrhea. That’s enough to scare anyone skinny. If I designed a study that gave someone an electric shock every time they ate too much or the wrong thing, I could reverse diabetes in a few weeks. But you can get the benefits of a gastric bypass without the pain of surgery, vomiting and malnutrition. Read more »