How Weight Loss Can Reverse Type 2 Diabetes
An analysis published in TheBMJ aims to let doctors and the public in on a little-known secret: Type 2 diabetes, in many cases, is curable.
People can reverse their diabetes by losing about 33 pounds, say the authors of the new paper, despite popular belief that the diagnosis is always a permanent one. If more people were striving for this goal, and if more doctors were documenting instances of diabetes remission, complication rates and health-care costs could both be reduced dramatically, the authors say.
The analysis is based on evidence from recent clinical trials. In one from 2011, people who were recently diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes returned their blood sugar levels to normal when they lost weight on a calorie-restrictive diet. In a 2016 follow-up study, people who had been diabetic for up to 10 years were able to reverse their condition when they lost about 33 pounds.
Mike Lean, professor of human nutrition at the University of Glasgow in Scotland, is an author of both the new analysis and of those earlier trials. He says a persons likelihood of remission from diabetes is greatest in the first five years after being diagnosed.
Type 2 diabetes, he wrote in an email, is a disease best avoided by avoiding the weight gain that drives it. For people who do develop it, he believes that evidence-based weight-loss programs could help them achieve lasting remission.
Bariatric Surgery Can Reverse Type 2 Diabetes
When someone with Type 2 diabetes loses weight through diet and exercise and/or bariatric surgery, insulin sensitivity improves, and they are better able to control their blood sugar meaning they may be able to reverse diabetes. One study of obese, Type 2 diabetic patients who had gastric bypass surgery found that 64 percent experienced remission one year after the procedure.
In another study, almost half of participants with diabetes who were given a six-month diet plan and lost an average of 30 pounds went into remission. None took any medications during that time to control their disease, relying on weight loss alone.
Remission isnt the same as a cure, and some people will still need medication to help maintain healthy blood sugar levels. However, weight loss through surgery or lifestyle changes is the most important factor in achieving remission.
How To Lower Blood Sugar With Diet
What happens if you remove foods that raise your blood sugar from your diet? Is there anything good left to eat? We think so. In fact, we have a whole guide on the best foods to control diabetes.
But a picture is worth a thousand words. These are just a few of the delicious foods that dont raise blood sugar for just about everyone:
Many people with type 2 diabetes are now choosing a diet based primarily on low-carb foods, and many clinicians are catching on as well.14
A person with type 2 diabete will often notice that, starting with the first meal, their blood sugar improves. The need for medications, especially insulin, is usually dramatically reduced. Substantial weight loss and health marker improvements often follow.15 Finally, people usually feel better and have more energy and alertness. 16
Choosing foods low in carbs is an effective way to help you control your blood sugar and is safe for most people. However, if you are taking medications for your diabetes, you must work with your healthcare provider to adjust your medications when you change your diet since the need for medications, especially insulin, may be greatly reduced.17
If you are looking for a doctor who will work with you to control your diabetes with a change in diet, our map may help you find one.
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How To Reverse Type 2 Diabetes
There is a question that is cropping up a lot lately, which is does anyone know how to reverse type 2 diabetes?
And there are a number of people that will argue the case and say its not possible.
Trying to justify their decisions with, how can you turn back the clock as though you never had it, or reversing type 2 diabetes sounds too good to be true.
But really guys, are they proper arguments to say that it cant be done?
I have a different opinion about how to get rid of diabetes , and that is down to a lot of the research that has been and is still being done.
There may not be an actual cure for type 2 diabetes, but studies have shown that it is possible for some people to reverse it.
This is a bit more solid than some of the random opinions of people who say it is not possible, maybe because they like to hear the sound of their own voice.
I am not saying type 2 diabetes can be reversed in all cases, because there are major factors to be taken into consideration, some of which are, how long the person has had the condition, how severe it has got to, or if its in the persons genes.
What Is Type 2 Diabetes
Type 2 diabetes is a condition that is characterised by chronically elevated blood sugar levels. However, the main cause as well as the driver for this condition is something called Insulin Resistance. When you eat certain foods, particularly refined carbohydrates, that food is converted to sugar inside your body. Your bodys way of dealing with this sugar is to produce a hormone called insulin. Insulin moves the sugar inside your cells so that it can be used for energy. Sounds great, right?
Well, yes and no. When working efficiently, this is a fantastic system that helps your body to function well. But when you have type 2 diabetes, prediabetes or significant abdominal obesity, that system does not work so well.
Eating too many refined carbohydrates elevates your insulin levels for long periods of time and your cells start to become resistant to the effects of insulin. Think of this a bit like alcohol. When you start to drink, a single glass of wine can make you feel drunk. Once your body becomes accustomed to drinking, you need more and more alcohol to achieve the same effect. This is what happens in diabetes. You need more and more insulin to do the same thing. The problem is that too much insulin is toxic to the body.
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Fat Is Safe In The Context Of Nutritional Ketosis
A common concern about following a carbohydrate restricted diet long-term is the eventual need to increase dietary fat intake. For decades now, Americans have been told to restrict fat as a way of not only decreasing the risk for obesity, but also decreasing the risk for cardiovascular disease. This theory has been refuted.³ Consuming high amounts of dietary fat is clinically demonstrated to be safe as long as carbohydrates are restricted. The theory that fat is responsible for heart disease and cholesterol problems has largely been disproven.â´â»â¹
Diet And Persistence Can Reverse Diabetes
This means we can now see type 2 diabetes as a simple condition where the individual has accumulated more fat than they can cope with, continues the author, stressing the hopeful implications of this finding.
Importantly, this means that through diet and persistence, patients are able to lose the fat and potentially reverse their diabetes. The sooner this is done after diagnosis, the more likely it is that remission can be achieved.
For the first time, conclude Prof. Taylor and team in their paper, we are able to report the underlying physiologic changes during a full cycle of disease reversal and re-emergence.
In the U.K., the National Health Service will roll out a program that will test the weight loss therapy in thousands of people living with type 2 diabetes.
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Can Diabetics Eat Sweet Stuff
Just because you might be on a journey of how to reverse type 2 diabetes, it doesnt have to be all doom and gloom.There are some sweet treats you can enjoy without making any of what some people might call extreme lifestyle changes. Who is to say diabetics cant enjoy sweet treats? Because of course they can.I get a lot of questions asking about what foods should be avoided with type 2 diabetes, well here are a few you dont have to avoid.It’s just a case of picking the right treat. Here are some ideas that diabetics can enjoy to make their lives a bit sweeter.
Study Reveals What Causes Type 2 Diabetes And How To Reverse It
As the incidence of diabetes continues to increase globally, the fight against this chronic condition continues. New research explains not only what triggers type 2 diabetes but also how to reverse the condition. The findings also shed light on what leads to remission after reversal for some people.
Between 1980 and 2014, the number of people living with diabetes across the world from about 108 million to 422 million.
As many as of these individuals have type 2 diabetes.
Pharmacological interventions have done little to stop what some have referred to as the diabetes pandemic.
Lifestyle interventions, however, may succeed where other approaches have failed.
A couple of years ago, Medical News Todayreported on the first results of a clinical trial, which showed that intensive weight loss programs could help people with type 2 diabetes achieve remission without taking any medication.
The trial was called the Diabetes Remission Clinical Trial , and one of its co-leaders was Prof. Roy Taylor from Newcastle University in the United Kingdom.
But how does this remission occur, and can it last in the long term? Why do some people achieve lasting remission while for others, the condition returns?
Prof. Taylor set out with his team to answer these questions, using data from the DiRECT trial and applying cutting-edge imaging and blood monitoring techniques.
The researchers published their findings in the journal
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Where Do We Go From Here
I would do a trial where people could be randomized to one of, say, three diets for, say, three or four months, says Mayer-Davis.
And then if theyre doing well on the diet, they stay on it. But if theyre not doing well, they get to switch to one of the other diets. Its called a SMART design, for sequential multiple assignment randomized trial.
A SMART trial would likely cut the number of dropouts, she adds.
And its closer to what happens in clinical medicine. If a treatment isnt working for someone, youre not going to keep them on it for two years.
Switching diets would also allow people to pick one they can stick with.
Were learning that one size doesnt fit all, says Mayer-Davis. Different diets wont work the same for all people, to say nothing of peoples preferences and behavior.
The key is weight loss, whether you have prediabetes or type 2 diabetes, she adds. It doesnt matter how you get there, as long as the foods are healthy.
Reversing Type 2 Diabetes Through Weight Loss
Its hardly news that obesity and related health problems represent a major public health problem in the United States. More than 40 percent of nations population is considered obese. Thats fueled an increase in people with Type 2 diabetes the most common illness linked to obesity, accounting for up to 50 percent of all new cases.
What you may not know, however, is that its possible to manage or even reverse Type 2 diabetes through weight loss and bariatric surgery.
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Testing The Twin Cycle Hypothesis
The study aimed to test and confirm the so-called twin cycle hypothesis, which Prof. Taylor and team put forth more than a decade ago.
The theory proposed that type 2 diabetes results from the accumulation of fat in the liver, which induces insulin resistance and increases blood sugar production.
These effects, in turn, increase plasma insulin levels, precipitating a self-reinforcing cycle in which insulin stimulates fat production.
These increased levels of liver fat cause the lipids to overspill into several tissues, including the pancreas.
Beta-cells, which are responsible for creating insulin, are located in the pancreas. Long-term exposure to saturated fatty acids is harmful to -cells, write the authors.
In the present study, the authors investigated the predictions of the twin cycle hypothesis 2 years into the DiRECT trial.
The researchers wanted to describe the pathophysiologic processes underlying the recurrence of type 2 diabetes in the group that initially achieved remission but then relapsed back to diabetes.
To this end, the researchers quantified intra-organ and abdominal fat using cutting-edge MRI scans at 12 and 24 months. They looked at pancreatic and liver fat, specifically.
The analysis included measurements of glucose, HbA1c, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and triglycerides. The team also analyzed fatty acids, insulin secretion, and beta-cell function.
Reversing Diabetes: 3 Habits That Can Help Control Your Sugar Levels
- Sedentary lifestyle coupled with rising stress and faulty dietary choices have increased the risk of diabetes in people. An expert suggests ways to reverse it.
Diabetes one of the fastest growing diseases worldwide is rising rapidly in people of all age groups including adolescents and children. The condition occurs when the body doesn’t produce enough insulin or can’t use it effectively. From heart diseases, kidney problems, stroke to lower limb amputation, the chronic disease poses many health risks to people affected by it.
Sedentary lifestyle coupled with rising stress and faulty dietary choices have increased the risk of people getting the disease. People who have diabetes in their family history have more chances of developing it.
“The inactive lifestyle leads to loss of muscle mass that may cause insulin resistance because our bodies are meant to be physically active. For thousands of years we led an active lifestyle, and it is only for the past 100 years or so we have got somewhat sedentary, explains Dr Arbinder Singal, a renowned super specialist doctor and co-founder & CEO of Fitterfly, a health tech start-up.
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Dr Singal also adds how our reliance on wheat and rice as staple food has been contributing to the carbohydrate load in our diet that could be putting us at risk of diabetes. He says our body breaks down carbohydrates easily which raises the level of glucose very quickly.
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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.
Reversing Type 2 Diabetes
This is a new way of thinking, Roy Taylor, professor of medicine and metabolism at Newcastle University in England, told MDedge, a news source for physicians, in 2018. Taylor is one of the principal investigators of the Diabetes Remission Clinical Trial .
Until now, weve regarded type 2 diabetes as inevitably downhillits only going to get worse.
But the DiRECT study turned that idea upside down.
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When Liver Fat Clogs Up The Pancreas
The study revealed that the majority of the trial participants maintained remission over the 2 years but that this was only possible if liver triglycerides and fat in the pancreas remained low.
Specifically, almost 9 out of 10 participants who managed to lose 15 kilograms or more in the DiRECT trial reversed their condition.
After 2 years, more than one-third of these individuals had been free of diabetes and the need for diabetes medication for at least 24 months.
A small group, however, experienced relapse, which was associated with a return to high liver triglycerides and high intrapancreatic fat levels.
Prof. Taylor explains: We saw that when a person accumulates too much fat, which should be stored under the skin, then it has to go elsewhere in the body. The amount that can be stored under the skin varies from person to person, indicating a personal fat threshold above which fat can cause mischief.
When fat cannot be safely stored under the skin, it is then stored inside the liver and overspills to the rest of the body, including the pancreas. This clogs up the pancreas, switching off the genes direct how insulin should effectively be produced, and this causes type 2 diabetes.
Prof. Roy Taylor
Carbohydrates Are Not Essential
You may have heard in the past that you âneedâ carbs for energyâbut basic biochemistry and decades of clinical studies demonstrate otherwise. Carbohydrates are actually the only dietary macronutrient not required by the human body. There are certain essential amino acids that we need from dietary protein and essential fatty acids that we must consume from dietary fats, but no one has yet discovered a carbohydrate molecule that we canât make within our own bodies. Furthermore, fat is not inferior to glucose as a fuelâyour heart and brain actually prefer ketones as a primary fuel source.²
The exception where dietary carbs are necessary is if a person is currently taking diabetes medications associated with the risk for hypoglycemia such as insulin or a sulfonylurea. In this case, dietary carbohydrate reduction has to be closely coordinated with the reduction or withdrawal of these drugs under expert medical supervision.
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