“Definitely a correlation between obesity and diabetes,” Dr. Joel Rodriguez of Barker Bariatric Center in Dallas, TX said. “20% to 30% of our patients are diabetic.”

Dr. Rodriguez said when it comes to weight loss surgery and Type 2 Diabetes the answers are better than ever.

Recent studies show that weight loss surgery does a lot more than just help people lose weight–which is great–but listen to this.

“Blood sugar levels come down immediately,” Dr. Rodriguez said. “In some cases and patients are off their medications.”

You heard right, off medications. Dr. Rodriguez said that in some cases it may take a bit longer but about 90% of the time patients no longer need their diabetes medicine.

Patients have several weight loss surgery options and they’re all effective–but the procedure that works best to treat diabetes is gastric bypass.

“We tailor an operation to a patient’s medical history to their own feelings about risk;” Dr. Rodriguez said. “We cover risks and benefits of each procedure and really tailor that operation to the patients.”

Dr. Rodriguez said researchers aren’t sure why gastric bypass all but eliminates Type 2 Diabetes but it probably has a hormonal impact that increases the body’s ability to use insulin.

Here’s the thing about diabetes–when you eliminate it you also reduce the risk of heart disease, stroke and high cholesterol.

In some cases after weight loss surgery the patient’s blood sugar level was normal before they left the hospital.

“It’s really rewarding as a physician to see a patient come in on a couple of diabetes medications have those medications taken away literally the day after the surgery,” Dr. Rodriguez said.

Since you like to Google anyway go ahead and search Barker Bariatric Center to learn more about weight loss surgery and diabetes.

The infamous Jose Canseco, refuses to give it up.. he is once again back on the scene. He will now be playing for the minor league baseball team, the Fort Worth Cats. Lets take time to reflect on the “not-so awesome” things Jose has done with his career.

A mile wide tornado with winds up to 200 mph tore through Oklahoma, killing over 50 people. The tornado ripped through neighborhoods and schools. Here are some of the reports and voices from the people who lived through the terror.

Block after block of the city was devastated, including two schools.  One was an elementary school that kept 75 kids in the building because of the approaching storm.  Seven of the children were killed.  Reporters on the scene confirmed that some of the children are being pulled out of that school.  There are reports of injuries, but we don’t know how serious those injuries are.  Students also sheltered inside Moore High School, and so far they haven’t left the building.

As if the tornado damage wasn’t enough, a gas leak as a result of the tornado led to a house fire, but due to all of the other damage and potential injuries, the fire is a low priority.

Moore Regional Hospital has also been heavily damaged.  It’s been evacuated, with crews taking patients to hospitals in nearby cities.  Right now, the death toll is being listed at 37, but that could very well go up in the coming hours.  More than 171,000 people were in the path of the storm.

There have been a lot of stories recently about professional athletes coming out or thinking about coming out of the closet. Did you know there’s a bunch of straight athletes working to make professional sports more accepting for gay players?  The organization is called Athlete Ally.

The only “Athlete Ally Ambassador” in Texas is Chris Seitz, the goal keeper for FC Dallas.

“I think for us to come out and really show some support is really crucial for moving forward,” said Seitz. “We can get more and more people to be themselves and feel comfortable in environments and really make this place a friendly game.”

Athlete Ally ambassadors work to rid sports of homophobia.

“Kind of make it so the atmosphere in the locker room is one that they’ve talked about and one that is now open completely for everyone. We’ve never really have an instance where anyone’s ever come out before,” said Seitz.

The first MLS player to come out of the closet is Robbie Rogers.

“He’s a good, good friend of mine, and someone that our families grew really close together and I’m really happy for him.”

“Definitely caught me by surprise, but, definitely I was happy for him and it’s one of those things… anytime you can let somebody come out and really be who they are, they’re going to be happier and they’re gonna be a lot more energetic and, hopefully, it’s going ot make them a better soccer player as well. He’s a really really good player.”

Seitz says he signed up for the future of professional athletics.

“Getting and reaching the kids that are now growing up and maybe dealing with the same things that he dealt with. It’s to get out there and let them know that he can be himself and people are going to love him for it and people are, it’s not going to change any sort of perception of him,” said Seitz.

“These stories are huge because it’s the first couple of people to do within major sports. Hopefully, down the line, we can get it to where they aren’t stories anymore and it’s just people being who they are.”