Yes, losing weight is good for you, as everyone knows. Another study has shown that just losing weight can reset you fat cells so they don’t send out “bad” messages.
Researchers led by Children’s National Health System have found that losing weight through surgical means can “reset” your fat cells and even reduce your risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
The finding is significant for people who are overweight or obese. The study showed that it is possible that the detrimental effects of being overweight can be decreased, even at the molecular level, just by losing weight.
Dr. Robert J. Freishtat is Chief of Emergency Medicine at Children’s National.
“We’ve known for a long time that too much adipose tissue is bad for you, but it’s all moot if you lose the weight and it’s still bad for you,” Freishtat said in his team’s press release.
“We wanted to know whether these negative changes are reversible. If you reduce fat, does the disease risk that goes along with excess fat also go away?”
After Gastri Bypass Surgery
Freishtat’s team took blood samples and other measurements from six African-American adults who were scheduled to receive gastric bypass surgery. They took the blood samples and measurements 2 weeks before the surgery. After one year, they repeated the blood samples and measurements.
Gastric bypass surgery pretty much guarantees significant weight loss. The researchers found that after they measured the patients one year after surgery, the average body mass index dropped from 51.2 kg/m2 to 32.6.
The major finding was that the patients’ adipocytes (fat cells) were resetting the chemical messages they were sending out, and in effect, encouraging higher insulin sensitivity in other cells, warding off Type 2 diabetes.
“These volunteers were essentially cured of their diabetes after surgery,” said Freishtat.
We don’t need to be told of the benefits of losing weight. Here is another example of how losing weight can positively impact people, especially those with type 2 diabetes.
