Managing Type 2 Diabetes
Keeping your blood sugar well controlled is key to reducing your risk of long-term complications such as heart, kidney or eye problems.
Regardless of whether you need medication or which medication you are taking, diet and lifestyle play a key part in preventing long-term complications. You can find out more about how you can improve your diabetes control with diet from our separate leaflet called Type 2 Diabetes Diet.
The initial stages in type 2 diabetes treatment are usually to follow a healthy diet, lose weight if you are overweight, and do regular physical activity. If lifestyle advice does not control your blood glucose levels then medicines are used to help lower these levels. One medicine is used first but two or even three medicines may be needed.
In addition to controlling your blood glucose, keeping raised blood pressure, cholesterol and other risk factors under control are also important. You can read more about controlling other risk factors in our separate leaflet called Type 2 Diabetes.
The rest of this leaflet is about medications to control blood glucose.
Daily Movement And Exercise
The third step is daily movement and exercise. And yes, you’ve heard it a thousand times, but that’s because it’s true: physical activity is key to staying healthy, and the research has proven it thousands of times over.
For reversing insulin resistance and diabetes, exercise creates a fantastic, positive feedback loop.
As you consistently move more, not only do you burn fat and lose weight, but your cells start to create more mitochondria to keep up with the increasing demands of exercise. Then, the next time you’re active, you’ll burn even more fat.
And not only will you burn more fat, but you’ll have more energy in general, making physical activity more fun! Exercise becomes more fun, you burn more fat and get more active, your body creates more mitochondria, and exercise becomes more fun again — and the whole time you’re fighting insulin resistance !
What Are The First Symptoms Of Type 2 Diabetes
Many people with type 2 diabetes do not experience any symptoms at first and it may go undiagnosed for years. If they do have symptoms, these may include:
- being very thirsty
- having cuts that heal slowly
Over time, diabetes can lead to complications, which can then cause other symptoms.
Blood glucose testing is important for detecting pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes before complications arise.
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Exceptions To The Rule
Professor Taylor caveats that all of this research is relevant for individuals with the usual form of type 2 diabetes. Rare forms of diabetes exist that can easily be mistaken for type 2 diabetes, including:
A) Pancreatic diabetesThis occurs after several cases of pancreatitis and is likely to be caused by pancreas damage.
B) Monogenic diabetesThis genetic form of diabetes is commonly found in slim individuals diagnosed in early adulthood who have a very strong family history of diabetes.
C) Slow onset type 1 diabetesSometimes type 1 diabetes develops slowly, appearing in adulthood, and these individuals usually need insulin therapy soon after being diagnosed.
Key points:
Can Type 2 Diabetes Be Reversed
Type 2 diabetes can be a life-long, chronic disease in which the body either does not produce enough insulin or the cells in out body doesnt respond to insulin correctly. Because of these two problems, there isnt enough insulin to move the glucose from the blood into the cells. When glucose builds up in the blood instead of going into cells, the bodys cells cant function properly.
Type 2 diabetes is more likely to occur in people who are over the age of 40, overweight, or have a family history in diabetes. Certain ethnic and racial groups also have higher risk for type 2 diabetes, including black, Hispanic/Latino, American Indian, Asian American and Pacific Islander. However, over the past decade the incidence of type2 diabetes has been increasing in adolescents and the young adult population.
According to recent research, type 2 diabetes cannot be cured, but individuals can have glucose levels that return to non-diabetes range, or pre-diabetes glucose level The primary means by which people with type 2 diabetes achieve remission is by losing significant amounts of weight.
We talk of remission and not a cure because it isnt permanent. The beta cells have been damaged and the underlying genetic factors contributing to the persons susceptibility to diabetes remain intact. Over time the disease process reasserts itself and continued destruction of the beta cells ensues. An environmental insult such as weight gain can bring back the symptomatic glucose intolerance.
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When Do Type 2 Diabetics Need Insulin
Insulin for Short-Term Blood Glucose Management Mazhari said, The American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists advises beginning a person with type 2 diabetes on insulin if their A1C is over 9 percent and they are experiencing symptoms. Type 2 diabetes is characterized by thirst, hunger, frequent urination, and weight loss.
What Lifestyle Changes Can Help Me Manage My Diabetes
Even though there’s no diabetes cure, diabetes can be treated and controlled, and some people may go into remission. To manage diabetes effectively, you need to do the following:
Manage your blood sugar levels. Know what to do to help keep them as near to normal as possible every day: Check your glucose levels frequently. Take your diabetes medicine regularly. And balance your food intake with medication, exercise, stress management, and good sleep habits.
Plan what you eat at each meal. Stick to your diabetes eating plan as often as possible.
Bring healthy snacks with you. Youâll be less likely to snack on empty calories.
Exercise regularly. Exercise helps you keep you fit, burns calories, and helps normalize your blood glucose levels.
Keep up with your medical appointments. That includes your doctor, diabetes educator, ophthalmologist, dentist, podiatrist, and other health care professionals.
After weight loss surgery, many people with type 2 diabetes see their blood sugar levels return to near normal. Some experts call this a remission. It’s not unusual for people to no longer need diabetes medicines after weight loss surgery.
The more weight a person loses after surgery, the greater improvement in blood sugar control.
After surgery, if extra weight returns, your diabetes can return too.
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So Does Significant Weight Loss Cure Type 2 Diabetes
The simple answer is no. Type 2 diabetes cannot be cured, but evidence suggests that significant weight loss can reverse the condition in some people. Once in remission, it is essential to maintain the weight loss otherwise type 2 diabetes will return.
Professor Taylor suggests a mechanism for how type 2 diabetes occurs, which explains why failing to maintain weight loss in remission leads back to diabetes:
The key point Professor Taylor adds is that everyone has a personal fat threshold. To go into remission , you must lose enough weight below your personal threshold. In his own words:
Some people can tolerate a Body Mass Index of 40 or more without getting type 2 diabetes. Others cannot tolerate a BMI of 22 without diabetes appearing, as their bodies are set to function normally at a BMI of, say 19. This is especially so in people of South Asian ethnicity.
Diabetes Reversal By Another Name
The concept of Type 2 diabetes remission, which is getting increasing attention from researchers and doctors, also goes by other names, including diabetes reversal,resolution, and even cure. But a consensus of experts led by the ADA last year agreed on the term remission as being most accurate.
The reason we use the word remission is because if someone were to think that they were cured or reversed, the challenge is they may then not feel like they need to have anything checked, says Dr. Robert Gabbay, ADAs chief science and medical officer.
In simplest terms, the expert panel defined Type 2 diabetes remission as having a blood-sugar level below the established threshold for a diabetes diagnosis for at least three months without taking diabetes medication. That would be below, for example, 6.5% A1c, for the blood test thats used to get a three-month average of blood sugar.
But a lot still remains unclearlike how long remission generally lasts, because it varies. And experts stress that continued follow-up with health care providersnot only to monitor blood glucose but also to check for diabetes complicationsis important because the impact of diabetes remission on things like heart health and death rate isnt yet well understood.
Read More: How People With Type 2 Diabetes Can Lower Their Risk of Health Problems
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What It Means To Have Type 2 Diabetes
A diagnosis of type 2 diabetes simply means theres too much sugar floating in your bloodstream, and the built-in mechanism for removing it isnt working properly.
Normally during the digestive process, the food you eat is broken down into sugar molecules that end up in your bloodstream. Once that sugar enters the blood, your body sends the hormone insulin to pull the sugar molecules out of your blood and into your cells to be used or stored as energy.
But with type 2 diabetes, sugar cant enter the cells due to an effect called insulin resistance, which is brought on by a high-sugar diet that keeps dumping sugar into the bloodstream.
This leads to chronically high blood sugar levels, which of course then leads to the type 2 diagnosis.
Can Walking Alleviate Diabetes
Studies have shown that walking may be effective for lowering blood glucose levels and improving diabetes management. In a research involving individuals with type 1 diabetes, participants were randomly allocated to either take a 30-minute walk after a meal or have the same meal while remaining sedentary.
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Is There A Cure For Diabetes
The answer to this question is yes, but with a few caveats. Type 1 diabetes, which is an autoimmune condition, currently has no known cure, but can be managed effectively through lifestyle decisions.
However, type 2 diabetes, which is caused by an underlying condition called insulin resistance, can be cured . Though for the purpose of this article we’ll refer to curing diabetes as reversing diabetes .
Botanicals And Herbs For Type 2 Diabetes
Several botanical and herbal supplements have been studied as alternative treatments for type 2 diabetes, including ginseng, cinnamon, and aloe vera. Find out if they really work.
Type 2 diabetes now affects more than 20 million Americans and the diabetes epidemic shows no sign of slowing. When someone has type 2 diabetes, it needs to be controlled through controlled blood sugar levels. When diet and exercise are not enough to control blood sugar, some people with type 2 diabetes turn to medications, like metformin. However, more and more research shows that alternative medicine can also help control blood sugar. Read on for more.
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What Causes Insulin Resistance
Like we said before, insulin resistance is the buildup of dietary fat in cells that are not meant to store it. This can result from a diet that’s too high in fat, processed foods, and simple sugars, or a lack of exercise, stress, sleep, and other challenges.
Most likely, it’s a combination of all of these factors.
Fortunately, there are four steps to guarantee that you can get control of your blood sugar levels and overcome diabetes.
So What Is The Cure For Diabetes Type 2
Well, the answer to this question is actually very simple. If you can reverse insulin resistance, you can reverse type 2 diabetes.
And fortunately, that’s exactly what we’re going to cover here: the four steps that Mastering Diabetes recommends as the proven, tested, and guaranteed cure for type two diabetes .
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The Science Of Diabetes Reversal
In 2019, the American Diabetes Association stated that reducing carbohydrate intake was the most effective nutritional strategy for improving blood sugar control in those with diabetes.18
Research shows that low-carb diets are a safe and effective option for treating type 2 diabetes. This body of evidence includes systematic reviews and meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials .19
A meta-analysis from 2017 found that low-carb diets reduced the need for diabetes medication and also improved certain biomarkers in people with type 2 diabetes. This included reductions in hemoglobin A1c , triglycerides, and blood pressure and increases in high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, sometimes called the good cholesterol.20
Additionally, in a non-randomized trial from Virta Health, the intervention group of subjects with type 2 diabetes followed a very low-carb diet and received remote monitoring by physicians and health coaches. After one year, 94% of those in the low-carb group had reduced or stopped their insulin use. Furthermore, 25% had an HgbA1c in the normal range without needing any medications, suggesting their disease was in remission, and an additional 35% did the same with only metformin.21
At the two-year mark, a high proportion of subjects continued to demonstrate sustained improvements in glycemic control.22
This evidence suggests that type 2 diabetes does not have to be a progressive and irreversible disease. It is clearly a treatable disease.
What Is Type 2 Diabetes
Type 2 diabetes develops when the body does not use insulin efficiently and gradually loses the ability to make enough insulin. Insulin is a hormone that controls the amount of glucose in the blood. Insulin helps glucose produced by the digestion of carbohydrates move from the blood into the bodys cells where it can be used for energy.
In type 2 diabetes, the bodys cells do not respond effectively to insulin. This is known as insulin resistance. it causes glucose to stay in the blood, leading to a higher than normal level of glucose in the blood .
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Can Type 2 Diabetes Be Cured Naturally
Many people ask me Can Type 2 Diabetes Be Cured Naturally? As the name suggests, Type 2 Diabetes is a disease that is related to insulin and this is a result of the pancreas not functioning properly. The pancreas produces insulin and this is what determines the level of glucose in the blood. When there is an excessive amount of insulin in the blood, this leads to diabetes. Insulin injections are also used but this should only be done after a consultation with your physician.
The insulin injections work by stimulating the pancreas to secrete more insulin. When the levels of insulin in the bloodstream are too high, the cells take the glucose for energy, which results in the release of glucose from the stored cells as food. Excessive glucose in the blood results in high blood sugar, which is what is characteristic of diabetes.
There are ways of treating diabetes. The most common methods involve the use of insulin, which has been produced from genetically engineered plants. This is however very expensive. Other methods used to treat diabetes are lifestyle changes. Some of these include diet control and weight loss.
Diabetics have to take medications in order to control their blood sugar level. They do this by injecting themselves with insulin. This needs to be done several times a day. If the cells within the liver are not functioning properly, it is important to correct this first. This is done by reducing the amount of glucose produced by the liver cells.
Type 2 Diabetes Cure: 4 Ways To Reverse The Disease
One big mistake that healthcare has made is that it has considered the bodys systems as separate. Gums are treated by the dentist, hearts by the cardiologist, and type 2 diabetes by the endocrinologist.
As a dentist, I see many patients with type 2 diabetes and advanced gum disease. Its long been know that the two conditions are linked. We must consider the body as a whole if we want to cure type 2 diabetes.
Type 2 diabetes affects over 30 million Americans and is the seventh leading cause of death. Whats more, 7.2 million of that 30 million are unaware they have type 2 diabetes. This disease is on the rise and expected to affect one in three Americans by 2050.
These are staggering numbers, impossible to ignore in my opinion.
Gone are the days where the only piece of nutritional advice youll hear from a dentist is dont eat candy, itll rot your teeth. As a functional dentist I care about you and your health much more than that. Your diet and oral health are the gateway to your overall health a fact that until recently had been largely overlook.
Up until this point, dentists have largely sat on the sidelines of the nutritional and systemic health conversation.
Lets take a close look at how your teeth provide the secret to help cure type 2 diabetes.
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Coaching With Mastering Diabetes
And here’s the good part. You’re not alone. Though these 4 steps are simple, executing them can be hard, especially in a world where foods are designed to be deceptive and we all struggle with stress and other health factors.
That’s why we have a world-class team of coaches, who are experts in diabetes education and can help you understand your diet, plan meals and your weekly menu, coach you on fun and suggested ways to get moving, help you work with your doctor to get personalized treatment and medical advice, and even offer advice and support you when you’re having a hard time.
There’s a reason that so many people have experienced what we call their “A1c Miracle” with us — our amazing coaches!