A new experimental surgery has the potential to make type 2 diabetes disappear in some people. The surgery is currently in the trial stages at the Sound Shore Medical Center in New Rochelle, New York. If the trials go well, there is a high likelihood sufferers across the nation, and the world, will be able to have the procedure.

The surgery is known as a duodenal jejunal bypass which basically entails removing a section of the small intestine. Dr. Mahdu Rangraj and Dr. Leonard Maffuci are the two doctors currently researching the procedure. They believe that by cutting off the first foot of the small intestine and reattaching the rest, food will be prevented from coming in contact with the first part of the small intestine. The small intestine is where hormones controlling blood sugar levels are located so by removing this section, blood sugar levels should return to normal range.

One sufferer of type 2 diabetes, 62-year-old Rocco Turso, recently underwent the surgery and experienced dramatic results.

For more than six years, Turso couldn’t go anywhere without a lot of medicine to treat his condition, which included three insulin shots daily and digesting several pills. Still, his condition continued to worsen.

“I could see my vision was getting a little blurry. I saw in my feet that my toenails, some got a little bit yellow,” he said. “The diabetes was winning, not me.”

Within a day of the surgery, Turso’s blood sugar levels dropped and have now returned to normal. Although the surgery is currently being done overseas, trials must be conducted in the US before it is approved. One of the largest benefits of the surgery is that it is completely reversible which minimizes the long-lasting affect the operation could have. Why would you want to go back though? Maybe that happens when someone starts to miss the piece taken away? Separation anxiety, anyone? Even though this type of operation is only being conducted by the South Shore hospital, “doctors in India and Mexico also are conducting their own studies, and one Brazil surgeon already has performed 70 surgeries.”

This is a great step for medicine. Hopefully a solution for type 1 diabetes will be discovered soon as well. That would make the lives of many, many people a whole lot better.

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