DIABETES specialists across the world are calling for a radical mind-set shift in treatment for Type 2 diabetes so that doctors can recommend bariatric surgery for patients. They say the surgery is close to the holy grail of a diabetes cure.Diabetes is a major cause of kidney failure, blindness, nerve damage, amputations, heart attack and stroke. Type 2 diabetes is a global epidemic, with the number of diabetic adults having quadrupled from 108-million in 1980 to 422-million in 2014.SA is facing the twin epidemics of obesity and Type 2 diabetes — the incidence of both has increased so rapidly that doctors now refer to it as "diabesity".In a special issue of Diabetes Care, 45 international organisations have published a joint consensus statement with new guidelines recommending bariatric surgery for Type 2 diabetics even for patients who are only mildly obese.The groups say extensive clinical trials show the surgery can improve blood-sugar levels more effectively than lifestyle or ph...
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