The results of a study presented at the International Congress of Endocrinology/European Congress of Endocrinology in Florence, Italy, showed that reducing BMI by 5 units significantly reduces the risk of diabetes, regardless of initial weight. This finding suggests that even severely obese diabetic patients may be free from the disease. Zhongqi Mao, Department of General Surgery, The First Hospital of Soochow University, has made diabetes a priority health issue for health care providers due to its high prevalence worldwide (6% to 7% of the world’s population, about 285 million patients) and its serious complications, including amputation and heart disease. Surprisingly, bariatric surgery has a fast and effective treatment effect on diabetes. The focus of the study by Associate Professor Markku Peltonen from the Finnish National Institute for Health and Welfare and his collaborators from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, was to understand the reasons for the powerful effect of bariatric surgery on diabetes. The investigators included 2010 patients from the Swedish Bariatric Subject Study who had undergone bariatric surgery and an additional 2037 obese patients who had received conventional obesity treatment (non-surgical) as controls. The study subjects were evaluated for BMI and baseline diabetes levels (pre-surgery levels in the surgery group) for 2 to 10 years of follow-up. The prevalence of type 2 diabetes was 6.5%, 7.7% and 9.3% in those patients with BMI <35, 35-40 and 40-45 who did not lose weight after 2 years, respectively. The prevalence of type 2 diabetes was 2.4%, 2.0% and 3.4% among patients with an initial BMI of 35-40, 40-45 and ≥45 who had lost at least 5 units of BMI after 2 years. These results suggest that the incidence of type 2 diabetes decreases in patients with a 5 unit reduction in BMI, regardless of their weight loss pattern. Further analysis showed that among all patients with BMI levels, the incidence of diabetes in patients with a BMI reduction of 5 was not associated with initial BMI, with the same findings among patients 10 years after surgery. This result suggests that a BMI reduction of 5, equivalent to a weight loss of 16 kg in a 35-year-old man of 180 cm height and 130 kg weight (BMI 40), can reduce the risk of diabetes and improve health. Our findings show that reducing BMI by 5 units over 2 to 10 years can significantly reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, regardless of initial weight," said Associate Professor Markku Peltonen, Minister of the Finnish National Agency for Health and Welfare. "Reducing BMI by 5 units is by no means an easy task because weight loss is not easy for the body. But patients of any weight should be encouraged to lose weight to increase their likelihood of a healthier life. "