I found out some exciting news about a “gastric pacemaker”.  It will help obese people lose weight.  You would be a good candidate for this if you have a BMI between 35-55.  There has been much talk among researchers to create a device that can be implanted with less invasive surgery than the gastric by-pass.  This device is the size of a pocket watch.  After you eat, the implant stimulates the stomach so it feels full.  This helps obese people learn to eat smaller portions and lose weight.

I know many people with type 2 diabetes are having gastric by-pass surgery to help them with weight loss as a 5-10 pound weight loss can result in better control of their diabetes.  Imagine what a 100 pound loss would do!  I am so excited over what could happen in a couple of years.  

How do you feel about this innovation?

I have two friends who have had the gastric bypass surgery.  They qualified for two reasons; Their BMI ranged between 35.0-39.9 and they have type 2 diabetes.  Both of my friends lost almost 100 pounds each!   Most importantly, they were taken off of their diabetes medicine to manage it with diet and exercise.  One of my friends actually suffered from frequent hypoglycemic episodes after this.  She was able to get it under control quickly, having known before-hand that this is a common side effect with this type of surgery.  Gastric Bypass is becoming more common for people with type 2 diabetes as an option to lose the weight.  

Gastric Bypass sounds like a quick and easy fix to dropping some serious weight, right?  What some people don’t understand is that you can gain the weight back by overeating very easily.  That is exactly what happened to both of my friends.  As a result of not following a smaller/strict diet, they both are back on their diabetes medicine and have regained the weight that was dropped from the gastric bypass surgery.

What are some other safe options for weight loss with diabetes?

Do you know anyone this has happened to?  Did they decide to have the surgery again?

Did you ever think there was anything good about fat?  Well, there is!  It’s called brown fat and it is the type of fat that burns away the “bad” white fat.  This burning process results in weight loss.

Brown fat increases in children up until puberty and then starts to decline.  However, brown fat is active in about 5 percent of thin adults, with higher rates seen in women.  Researchers have discovered two pathways that activate brown fat production. Their study has opened the door for new ways to treat obesity.

With this development, what can we expect to see in the future?  Most likely, a new medication will be developed that can stimulate brown fat growth.  Some researchers believe they may be able to grow brown fat in the laboratory and then transplant it into the body.  Whatever  the treatment, this discovery could play an important role in fighting obesity and diabetes.

Have you heard any news about brown fat or a new way to fight obesity?  

^{Reference:   http://endo.endojournals.org/content/152/10/3680 accessed 10/1/2011}