Learn about Type 2 diabetes treatment.

Type 2 Diabetes Mellitis is a chronic disease. People are not born with Type 2 diabetes. You may have heard it called adult onset diabetes, insulin resistance, non-insulin dependant diabetes mellitus, prediabetes or borderline diabetes.

In the animation on the web site www.type2diabetestreatment.com.au you will meet Sarah. Like around 90% of diabetics, Sarah has Type 2 diabetes. Lately Sarah has been lacking energy, she’s sick of feeling tired. Sarah would like to put her diabetes in remission.

Remission would mean Sarah has normal fasting sugars, a HbA1c level of less than 6 and she would no longer need medication. Sarah would enjoy a long period without her Type 2 diabetes progressing.

The pancreas is an important organ that makes the hormone insulin. Insulin travels around the body and helps our cells use glucose as fuel.

In people with Type 2 diabetes insulin stops working properly and there may not be enough at the right times. This is called ‘insulin resistance’.

Obesity, hypertension and increased cholesterol are conditions associated with Type 2 diabetes. The disease can harm your heart, kidneys, eyes and feet.

Because Type 2 diabetes is more common in people with obesity or inactive patients, diet and exercise have continued to be the initial approach to treatment and later medication. Patients may be put on an effective medication and eventually insulin – but aren’t they resistant to insulin?

YES and so they need more insulin as the disease progresses.

Thin looking people can also get Type 2 diabetes. It’s because they have a high percentage of visceral fat which is hidden in the abdomen. (You can learn more about this in our Patient Learning).

After much research, scientists now believe Type 2 diabetes may begin in the ‘duodenum’ – a part of your stomach.

Evidence has been accumulated over many years. Patients whose duodenum was bypassed with surgery experienced instantaneous improvement in sugar control even before substantial weight loss has been achieved.

Minimally invasive Metabolic and diabetes surgery assists a person with Type 2 diabetes to lose large amounts of the fat build up in the body, particularly the ‘visceral’ fat around your major organs such as liver, kidneys, pancreas, intestines and heart. You can learn more about this type 2 diabetic in the Patient Learning section.

After metabolic and diabetes surgery, type 2 diabetics experience less symptoms, and are able to self manage the disease with a healthy lifestyle, exercise, checking blood glucose levels every few days and regular checkups with their doctor.

Metabolic and diabetes surgery has been so successful for patients with Type 2 diabetes that global clinical guidelines have been developed.

These guidelines recommend that gastrointestinal operations originally intended for weight loss (Bariatric surgery) be used as standard treatment options for patients with Type 2 diabetes and obesity – including those with only mild obesity – and be referred to as metabolic surgery.