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At Cincinnati’s Children’s Medical Center, along with 5 other medical centers, researchers took on the task of giving gastric bypass surgery to 78 teens ranging in age from 13 to 21 years of age. They were chosen based on the fact that their bodies were nor receptive to the hormone insulin. Insulin helps the body to metabolize food into energy. Also all of the teens that had the surgery were overweight by at least 100 pounds for their ideal weight, height, and age. They were monitored for one year and showed some surprising results.

In the eleven teens that were treated by Cincinnati’s Children’s Medical Center all but one dropped about 1/3 of their body weight. Because of this, they were able to discontinue taking medications for type 2 diabetes. No adverse side effects occurred and none of the teens had to be readmitted to the hospital.

Gastric bypass is a surgery where the stomach is made smaller during a surgical procedure. Primarily it is used to treat those who are obese and had problems losing weight. Since the stomach is smaller, the patient gets full faster. For many years, this surgery was controversial, but now has been perfected and is widely accepted as a cure for obesity.

But what made our children this way in the first place? In several cases, it’s cultural. If a person is thin, they may be thought of as not healthy. But we tend to take it overboard in some cases. Obesity in children has grown from 3% to 11% in just 10 years. Perhaps it’s that mad dash to the burger joints and pizza palaces we’ve made because we’re in such a hurry to make money that we don’t cook wholesome good meals anymore. It could be the massive all you can eat buffets that are on every corner.

The author of the study, Thomas Inge, isn’t quite sure why the procedure worked. The theory is that because some hormones in the digestive tract change the way they respond when digestion no longer relies on the help it received from the stomach. This may have a lot to do with it’s positive response.

Michael Freemark, who is Chief of Pediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes at Duke University Medical Center was very pleased with the results. However, he feels that there is still more research to do. Now long term benefits, and gastric bypass surgery risk in teens needs to be evaluated. Freemarks also stated that the research was not racially diverse. As well it was not noted if any of the children had kidney disease, serious vision problems, or experienced nerve damage. Nerve damage in diabetes patients typically don’t show until their 20′s or 30′s. So there are till many factors to look into. Inge says that this is not a cure but opens up the door for the use of another tool in treating type 2 diabetes.