Do you know all the latest developments in diabetes?

  Diabetes is an ancient disease that has been around for thousands of years, but the scientific treatment of diabetes began in 1910. In that long time, a variety of methods have been tried, such as the oatmeal cure (8 ounces of oatmeal and 8 ounces of butter mixture every 2 hours), the milk diet, the rice cure, the potato cure, and the opium control method. Many diabetics replace lost water and gain weight by overeating. It wasn’t until the advent of insulin that people first really put the disease under their feet.  The current traditional treatment for diabetes is internal medicine plus insulin injection therapy, which is scientifically effective but requires long-term monitoring of blood glucose values, and may not always be as effective as it could be for patients with severe diabetes, and causes a large economic burden, which can have a negative impact on the lives of both the patients themselves and their families.  With the continuous development of medical technology, the international medical community has now begun to include weight loss and glucose reduction surgery as a routine treatment for diabetes. Weight loss surgery is a solution to the problem of food intake and nutrient absorption by changing the structure of the gastrointestinal tract, which not only reduces weight, but also treats type 2 diabetes. According to relevant data, 80% of obese diabetic patients are maintained in a non-diabetic state after surgery, and their diabetes is in long-term remission. Surgery plays a preventive role for people at high risk of diabetes (obese or overweight) and can reduce the risk of developing diabetes by 78%.  In 2014, China officially released the “Chinese Guidelines for the Surgical Treatment of Obesity and Diabetes (2014)”, marking bariatric surgery as one of the standard treatment options for type 2 diabetes in China. According to the guidelines, the indications for diabetes surgery are: 1, the duration of type 2 diabetes ≥ 15 years, and the pancreatic islets still have some insulin secretion function, fasting serum C-peptide ≥ one-half of the lower limit of normal value 2, BMI (body mass index) ≥ 27.5 kg/㎡ 3, waist circumference ≥ 90 cm in men and ≥ 85 cm in women, the recommended level of surgery can be increased as appropriate 4, the recommended age for surgery is 16-65 years. The recommended age for surgery is 16-65 years old. 2. if the duration of type 2 diabetes is ≥15 years, and the pancreatic islets still have some insulin secretion function, and the fasting serum C-peptide is ≥2/2 of the lower limit of normal value 5. if the BMI (body mass index) is ≥27.5kg/㎡ 6. if the waist circumference is ≥90cm for men and ≥85cm for women, the recommended age for surgery can be increased as appropriate 7. if the recommended age for surgery is 16-65 years old.