Reducing your BMI has been shown to greatly reduce your risk of diabetes
Reducing your BMI by five units can prevent or cure diabetes, according to research from the University of Gothenburg. Looking at data from more than 4000 obese patients, the researchers found that a drop in BMI made a dramatic difference to the incidence of diabetes. Those who didn’t lose weight over a two-year period had nearly triple the risk of getting or continuing to have diabetes compared to others whose BMI had dropped five units. Digging deeper into the data, the researchers found that this was true regardless of how high the BMI was in the first place, so that someone with an extremely high BMI would see a similar benefit to someone who started with a lower one, if both dropped five units via weight loss.
Losing weight is rarely easy and when diet and exercise regimes don’t work or there are other health issues preventing you from losing weight naturally surgical procedures may be necessary. There are different options available, and according to research from the National Institute for Health and Welfare, Finland, it doesn’t matter which method you opt for as long as you lose weight.
The researchers looked at the effects on diabetes-related health issues such as blood glucose and insulin levels, and assessed three different weight-loss surgeries: gastric banding (reduction in the size of the stomach), gastric bypass (stapling the top portion of the stomach, causing food to bypass the small intestine) and vertical banded gastroplasty (where both stapling and a band are used to control food intake and absorption). Some methods produced more weight loss than others: gastric banding produced an average weight loss of 18kg over a 10-year period, gastric bypass 20kg, and vertical-banded gastroplasty 29kg. Regardless of the type of surgery, however, the best results were seen in those individuals who had lost the most weight: a person who had had a gastric bypass and lost 20kg saw the same benefit as someone who lost an equivalent amount through vertical-banded gastroplasty.