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.
What Exactly Is Diabetes Remission
Current scientific thinking suggests that weight loss is likely the driving force for remission in type 2 diabetes. According to one theory, the Twin Cycle Hypothesis, when extra fat is deposited in the liver due to weight gain, fat accumulates in the pancreas and impairs insulin-producing beta cells. Many believe that reducing fat in the pancreas through overall weight loss helps restore normal insulin production.
The definition of diabetes remission slightly differs depending on who you ask:
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Researchers in the DiRECT diabetes remission trial defined it as having an A1C below 6.5% and discontinuing all diabetes medications for at least two months.
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Another group of experts defined remission as having an A1C below 5.7% and discontinuing all diabetes medications for at least one year.
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Others believe that someone can be in remission while still taking metformin, as long as they have discontinued other diabetes medications and lowered their A1C to below 6.5%.
When discussed in diaTribe, we are referring to the first definition: an A1C below 6.5% and discontinuing all diabetes medications for at least two months.
Whether You Have A Diagnosis Of Type 2 Diabetes Or Or Youve Been Told Youre At Risk Read On For 11 Ways To Start Reversing The Effects Immediately
Type 2 diabetes is reaching epidemic proportions. There are 3.9 million people living with diabetes 90 per cent those of being affected by type 2 diabetes. Heres another shocking statistic: 1 in 3 UK adults has prediabetes, the condition that precedes diabetes.
As youll soon see on BBC Ones Doctor in the House, it is entirely possible to both prevent as well as reverse type 2 diabetes. Unfortunately, a lot of the advice that is given for the condition is, in my opinion, unhelpful and misguided. Most people think of it as a blood sugar problem but this is the ultimate effect rather than the cause.
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What Tips Have People Found Helpful
Marcia Kadanoff was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in June 2017. With the help of diaTribe and Adam Brown’s book, Bright Spots & Landmines, she discovered that type 2 diabetes can be put into remission with lifestyle changes. Here are some habits that Marcia found useful when making lifestyle changes to reach remission:
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Check blood sugar frequently with a meter or ideally a continuous glucose monitor to see how your blood sugar responds to different foods and eating styles. Marcia uses FreeStyle Libre and the LibreLink app.
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Establish a low carb, healthy fat way of eating. Incorporating fats like avocado, unprocessed nut and olive oils, cheese, and Greek yogurt reduced her cravings for unhealthy foods.
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Have low-carb, go-to snacks on hand Marcia likes macadamia nuts.
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Take a walk and drink a glass of water when blood sugar levels are high .
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Aim for 10,000 steps per day, and try not to let more than two days in a row of inactivity go by. Walking is the most underrated exercise strategy!
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Aim for seven or more hours of sleep, including going to sleep at a regular hour and waking up at the same time each day.
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Finding additional motivation besides weight loss, such as having more energy throughout the day or not wanting to rely on medications.
Reverse Diabetes With Daily Physical Activity
Start with an exercise routine that will help you lose weight and prevent blood sugar fluctuations. You should do at least 150 minutes of exercise each week, or 30 minutes, five days a week.
It is important to include muscle building exercises that are a combination of cardio and strength training exercises.
Depending on whatever works best for you, you could choose to work out for 30 minutes at a stretch or go for bite-sized workouts wherein you break a high-intensity interval training into 10-minute sessions three times a day.
But, consistency is the key. Quitting will take you far from your goal of reversing diabetes.
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What Kind Of Diabetes Can Be Reversed
If you are diagnosed with prediabetes, there is good news. With some changes in your diet and lifestyle, you can reverse your diabetes permanently and cure diabetes at early stage. Similarly, type-2 diabetes patients can also reverse it with subtle changes in their lifestyle. However, type-2 diabetes cannot be reversed permanently. It can be sent into remission but there is always a risk for it to return. Hence, once your diabetes is in remission, dont change your healthy lifestyle.
People also search for how to reverse diabetes type 1, but unfortunately type 1 diabetes cant be reversed. The patient has to take insulin shots daily to remain alive. However, it will definitely help patients if they follow a healthy lifestyle. Gestational diabetes can be controlled but there is always a risk of it progressing to type-2 diabetes.
Reversal Vs Remission Vs Cure
The terms âreversalâ and âcureâ mean very different things. Type 2 diabetes can be âreversedâ but not âcuredâ because the disease will continue to progress if long-term behavior change is not maintained.
âRemissionâ is another term thatâs often used interchangeably with âreversal.â While the definitions are slightly differentâthe goal is the sameâto control diabetes and return blood sugar to below diagnostic thresholds.
Remission happens when blood sugar returns to sub-diabetes levels, and stays that way for more than three months without any diabetes medication².
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I Want To Get Off My Diabetes Meds
Can diet, exercise, and weight-loss help a person with type 2 diabetes get off their medications?
The short answer is yessort of but not necessarily for everyone. According to a 2016 study published in Diabetes Care, approximately 40 percent of people with type 2 diabetes can reverse their condition through drastic changes in diet, exercise, and body weight.
Regardless, this leaves 60 percent of the type 2 population that cannot reverse diabetes through diet, exercise, and weight loss alone because their body is struggling more so with beta-cell dysfunction rather than the more commonly known issue of insulin resistance which is usually associated with being overweight.
Clients with type 2 diabetes always ask: can I get off my diabetes meds? explains diabetes coach and owner of Diabetes Strong, Christel Oerum. The truth is that some people will be able to, and others wont.
Trying to determine who can and who cant is determined largely by trying.
You wont know until you try because theres no way to test each patient and pinpoint the exact cause of their diabetes, adds Oerum, who also lives with type 1 diabetes. Is it a genetically inherited insulin deficiency or is it insulin resistance from weight gain, inactivity, and an unhealthy diet?
The answer isnt as simple as mainstream media has led us to believe.
Lets take a closer look at the difference between the two these causes of type 2 diabetes.
Achieve The Ideal Weight For Your Height
For people with Type 2 diabetes, losing weight allows them to drain excess fat out of the pancreas and allows the function to return to normal, said Professor Roy Taylor, of Newcastle University who also works within the Newcastle Hospitals.
So if you ask how much weight you need to lose to make your diabetes go away, the answer is one gram.
But that gram needs to be fat from the pancreas.
At present, the only way we have to achieve remission is by calorie restriction by any means, whether by a supervised calorie diet or through bariatric surgery.
What is interesting is that regardless of your present body weight and how you lose weight, the critical factor in reversing diabetes is losing that one gram of fat from the pancreas. Read the entire article here.
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Type 1 Vs Type 2 Diabetes
Your pancreas makes a hormone called insulin.
When your blood sugar levels rise, the pancreas releases insulin. This causes glucose to move from your blood to your cells to provide energy. As glucose levels in your blood fall, your pancreas stops releasing insulin.
Type 2 diabetes affects how you metabolize sugar. With type 2 diabetes, your pancreas doesnt produce enough insulin, or your body has become resistant to its action. This causes hyperglycemia, when glucose builds up in the blood.
autoimmune condition that happens when the bodys immune system attacks healthy cells in the pancreas. Why this happens is unclear, but genetic factors and family history likely play a role. If you have type 1 diabetes, your pancreas makes little to no insulin.
In the early stages, lifestyle measures can help manage glucose levels with type 2 diabetes. But if you have type 1 diabetes, you will need to inject insulin regularly to metabolize glucose.
Theres no cure for type 1 diabetes, and you cant reverse it. Still, the condition can be managed with medication. With type 2, you can often manage it with lifestyle measures.
Can You Control Your Diabetes With Diet And Workout
Yes, you definitely can. Diet and exercise not just help control your weight, but they also assist control your blood glucose level. Workout assists increase your metabolism and assist you burn more energy. These two factors integrate to give you more stamina and increased ability to control your diabetes.
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Type 2 Diabetes Is A Reversible Condition
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- People with type 2 diabetes can reverse the condition through a low calorie diet.
A body of research putting people with Type 2 diabetes on a low calorie diet has confirmed the underlying causes of the condition and established that it is reversible.
Professor Roy Taylor at Newcastle University, UK has spent almost four decades studying the condition and will present an overview of his findings at the European Association For The Study Of Diabetes in Lisbon.
In the talk he will be highlighting how his research has revealed that for people with Type 2 diabetes:
- Excess calories leads to excess fat in the liver
- As a result, the liver responds poorly to insulin and produces too much glucose
- Excess fat in the liver is passed on to the pancreas, causing the insulin producing cells to fail
- Losing less than 1 gram of fat from the pancreas through diet can re-start the normal production of insulin, reversing Type 2 diabetes
- This reversal of diabetes remains possible for at least 10 years after the onset of the condition
“I think the real importance of this work is for the patients themselves,” Professor Taylor says. “Many have described to me how embarking on the low calorie diet has been the only option to prevent what they thought — or had been told — was an inevitable decline into further medication and further ill health because of their diabetes. By studying the underlying mechanisms we have been able to demonstrate the simplicity of type 2 diabetes.”
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What Are The Effects Of Raised Insulin Levels
The only way to effectively reverse type 2 diabetes is to deal with the underlying cause Insulin Resistance. Trying to address the blood sugar levels without addressing the insulin levels is treating the symptoms, not treating the root cause. It is similar to using a bucket to remove water from an overflowing sink rather than actually turning off the tap!
The most important thing to do is to stop adding fuel to the fire. If Insulin Resistance is driving the condition, you need to firstly stop consuming foods that increase insulin production. Secondly, you need to make some lifestyle changes so that you can become sensitive to insulin once again
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How Does Type 2 Diabetes Develop
Scientists at Newcastle University have shown the disease is caused by fat accumulating in the pancreas.
Lose less than one gram from the pancreas to reverse the life-limiting illness and restore insulin production.
Type 2 diabetes affects 3.3 million people in England and Wales and, until now, was thought to be chronic. It can lead to:
- kidney failure, and
- limb amputation.
For people with Type 2 diabetes, losing weight allows them to drain excess fat out of the pancreas and allows the function to return to normal -Professor Roy Taylor, Newcastle University
Carbohydrates And Blood Sugar
Carbohydrates, or carbs, usually come from starches or sugars and turn into glucose when they are digested. When glucose enters the bloodstream, its called blood glucose, or blood sugar.
Carbohydrates
The more carbohydrate eaten in a meal, the more sugar is absorbed into the bloodstream and usually the higher the blood sugar will be.
Although very few people would agree that sugary foods are good for you, some foods that we think of as healthy such as fruit can have a lot of sugar. And many people dont know that starchy foods such as bread, rice, pasta, and potatoes quickly turn to sugar when you digest them.10
For some people, eating a potato could raise blood sugar as much as eating 9 teaspoons of sugar! It can be hard to predict exactly how someones blood sugar will respond, as this will likely vary based on genetics and baseline insulin sensitivity.11 By testing your blood sugar before eating and every 30-minutes after eating for up to two hours, you can quickly learn how different foods affect your blood glucose level. The results may surprise you!
Chart: Dr. David Unwin
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How Can I Get Rid Of Diabetes Permanently
Although there’s no cure for type 2 diabetes, studies show it’s possible for some people to reverse it. Through diet changes and weight loss, you may be able to reach and hold normal blood sugar levels without medication. This doesn’t mean you’re completely cured. Type 2 diabetes is an ongoing disease.
Can Anyone Put Their Type 2 Diabetes Into Remission
The longer youve had type 2 diabetes, the more difficult it is to reach remission. Over time, the beta cells in the pancreas burn out, or lose their ability to produce insulin. After a certain duration, it may be impossible to restore normal insulin production. Researchers suggest that diabetes remission is possible for some people out to ten years following diagnosis, though the DiRECT remission study only included people who had diabetes for six years or fewer.
Healthcare providers have differing opinions on how feasible it is to put type 2 diabetes into remission. Dont hesitate to share this article with your provider.
Because the effects of an elevated A1C can be lasting, anyone who has put their diabetes into remission needs to continue to be screened for diabetes complications. A panel of experts recommends continued screening for nerve, kidney, and eye damage for at least five years, with a potential reduction in the frequency of screenings after that. They also recommend continuing frequent screening for heart and blood vessel problems.
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Is Type 2 Diabetes Reversible
in children, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention .
Several factors contribute to type 2 diabetes, including overweight and obesity.
Type 2 diabetes can lead to life threatening complications, but with treatment, you can manage the condition or cause it to go into remission.
Healthline has partnered with Profile by Sanford to provide more information about managing diabetes for better health through diet, exercise, and more.
How To Reverse Diabetes Type 2 Permanently
But now researchers at Newcastle on diabetes in the UK have shown that the disease can be reversed, even in obese people who have had the condition for a long time.
18 obese people diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes received gastric band surgery. A subsequent 8-week low-calorie diet cured their condition of type 2 diabetes.
During the clinical trials, the patients, aged between 25 and 65, lost an average of 2.2 stone or 30.8 pounds, which was around 13 percent of their body weight.
Crucially they also lost 0.6 grams of fat from their pancreas, allowing the organ to secrete normal levels of insulin. The journal of clinical endocrinology reports that this team plans to conduct a two-year study of 200 people with diabetes at Glasgow University.
They want to verify that they can reverse the disease of type 2 diabetes through weight loss. In addition, they want to ensure that long term weight loss can be sustained for two years.
Type 2 Diabetes is a Curable Disease How to Reverse Type 2 Diabetes Naturally
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- Fung, Dr. Jason
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