Part of Strader's research focuses on one such hormone, known as glucagon-like peptide 1 or GLP-1. Strader jokingly calls it "the best hormone in the world" because of its many positive effects.

GLP-1 stimulates the creation of more pancreatic beta cells, which produce insulin, as well as making other tissues more sensitive to its effects. It inhibits glucagon production, lowering blood glucose levels associated with Type II diabetes and can also cross over into the brain and increase satiety, or the feeling of decreased appetite one gets of being full. It also slows the rate at which food moves through the GI tract, stabilizing blood glucose levels and again inhibiting over-eating.

"It can do so many great things for people," she said. "It's an awesome hormone."

Strader also is examining the role bile plays in resolving Type II diabetes. Secreted by the liver, bile normally is taken back up through the small intestine and re-circulated to the liver. Research has shown, however, that patients who take anti-cholesterol drugs, which work by binding with bile and preventing recirculation to the liver, also have improved Type II diabetes conditions.

For Strader, this just illustrates the complexity of the process.

"There's no one single factor that is causing the resolution of the diabetes," she said. "It has to be a combination of numerous things, probably in hormones being changed and secreted from different parts of the intestine. And it's probably the way that bile is being changed and altered in its uptake throughout the gut, and probably other things, too."

Gastric bypass surgery is not the answer for every patient who suffers from obesity and Type II diabetes, Strader said, making the need for her research aimed at finding pharmaceutical or other therapies all the more important, along with diet and exercise. She does hopes her work will convince insurance companies to pay for gastric bypass surgeries in appropriate cases as a means of not only improving their clients' health, but also saving money. A typical surgery costs $20,000 to $30,000, she said.

"But if you add up the lifetime of drugs these people will need to be on without the surgery, their need to take them for lipid disorders, hypertension, diabetes, arthritis and such, plus doctor visits, they save money by paying for a simple operation like this," she said.

Source: Southern Illinois University Carbondale