Is It Possible To Reverse Diabetes
Its possible to reverse both prediabetes and Type 2 diabetes. Type 1 and gestational diabetes are not reversible people with these conditions can only treat and manage them.
Most people with diabetes have insulin resistance, meaning their bodies dont use insulin well and glucose then stays in their blood and doesnt reach cells, eventually causing health problems. Other people with diabetes either dont make enough insulin or make none at all. There are a few common forms of diabetes:
- Type 1 diabetes is when the body doesnt make insulin. The immune system attacks and kills cells in the pancreas that create insulin. Healthcare providers usually diagnose this form of diabetes in young people, but it can develop at any age. Type 1 diabetes patients need to take insulin every day.
- Type 2 diabetes is when the body doesnt make or use insulin well. Its the most common form of diabetes. Although it can happen at any age, Type 2 diabetes most often develops in middle-aged and older adults.
- Gestational diabetes develops in pregnant women. It usually goes away after the baby is born but does raise the mothers risk of having Type 2 diabetes later on. Diabetes during pregnancy is also sometimes Type 2 diabetes.
Healthcare providers also diagnose people with prediabetes. This is when blood glucose levels are higher than usual but not high enough to be diabetes. Prediabetes raises the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes and has many of the same causes.
Type 2 Diabetes And The Diet That Cured Me
Why me? At 59 I was 10st 7lb, 5ft 7in, and had never been overweight. I ran and played cricket regularly and didn’t drink alcohol excessively. Yet at a routine check-up I was told that I had type 2 diabetes. In 10 years I could be dependent on insulin, it could affect my sight, feet, ears, heart and I had a 36% greater chance of dying early.
In type 1 diabetes, the body produces none of the insulin that regulates our blood sugar levels. Very high glucose levels can damage the body’s organs. Patients with type 2 diabetes, however, do produce insulin – just not enough to keep their glucose levels normal. Because I was fit and not overweight , my doctor told me I could control my condition with diet alone.
Desperate for information, I headed to the web, where I found a report about a research trial at Newcastle University led by Professor Roy Taylor. His research suggested type 2 diabetes could be reversed by following a daily 800-calorie diet for eight weeks.
When our bodies are deprived of normal amounts of food they consume their own fat reserves, with the fat inside organs used up first. The idea of Taylor’s diet is to use up the fat that is clogging up the pancreas and preventing it from creating insulin, until normal glucose levels return. With my GP’s blessing and a home glucose-testing kit, I began my experiment.
Complete Recovery From Type 2 Diabetes Is Possible
About 90-95% of people in the world have type 2 diabetes. Although it starts as a lifestyle condition, it can become a chronic disease, followed by heart attacks, strokes, circulatory problems, blindness, and kidney failure. The good news is that you can lower/control blood sugar levels and even partially reverse type 2 diabetes without medication.
During the program, you will detoxify, switch to a healthier diet, and receive the support your body needs with therapies and IV applications. Your entire process will be monitored and supported by our medical team and program coordinators. Moreover, you will have a better understanding of how to manage your condition. We apply four fundamental health principles to treat type 2 diabetes:
Cleansing Toxins from the Body
Detoxifying the body from accumulated toxins with a cleanse or fast is essential to deal with the causes of type 2 diabetes. With a minimum 1-week detox program at TheLifeCo, like Master Cleanse, Green Juice or Water Fasting program, you can lower blood sugar levels, eliminate hypoglycemia and control blood sugar.
During the detox, many activities such as exercises and morning walk under our experts guidance will help balance blood sugar and increase your energy levels. In addition, your mg/dl values are monitored regularly throughout your program.
Balanced and Therapeutic Nutrition
Antioxidant and Natural Therapies
A Stress-Free, Healing Atmosphere
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Roles And Responsibilities Of The Driver With Diabetes And The Health
People with diabetes should play an active role in assessing their own fitness to drive and should have a duty to report conditions that may potentially impair their ability to drive safely, such as hypoglycemia unawareness and episodes of severe hypoglycemia while driving or while awake but not driving. However, studies have demonstrated limited patient awareness of and adherence to recommendations for safe driving. As few as 15% of adults routinely perform self-monitoring of blood glucose before driving . A survey in Edinburgh of 202 drivers with insulin-treated diabetes showed only 50% of drivers reported following minimum safe driving recommendations: carrying carbohydrate in the vehicle, measuring glucose before a journey, stopping the vehicle during a hypoglycemic episode and recognizing a low glucose as unsafe to drive .
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Sugar Cravings: Why We Have Them & How To Stop Them
A food craving is an intense urge or desire to eat a specific type of food. Its not the same as hunger. We can crave a food, for example, right after a meal. One of the most common cravings is for sugary foods. Some people can indulge their sugar cravings without repercussions. For others, giving in repeatedly to cravings can undermine workouts or lead to health issues weight gain, mood swings, diabetes, and more. In some cases, the information below on the origins of sugar cravings may differ from what youve read elsewhere. Were typically told that sugar cravings result from low glucose, or emotions, or biological need. These explanations have some validity but leave much unexplained. Lets look at some other possible reasons real reasons for sugar cravings.
Real Reason #1: Too Little Fat in Your Diet
Science journals refer to the Sugar/Fat Seesaw. As the name implies, its an inverse relationship in how much fat and sugar we eat. As one decreases in the diet, the other increases. Fats stabilize blood glucose and can help us control sugar cravings that way. But fats can help us eliminate sugar cravings for other reasons. When I was working on my Ph.D., no explanation for the sugar/fat seesaw existed in the science lit. In my dissertation, I offered a two-part explanation.
Part 1: When fat enters the small intestine, a hormone called CCK is released. CCK reduces hunger, appetite and the desire for carbs.
Real Reason #2: Withdrawal
Real Reason #3: Triggers
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Exercise And Weight Loss
An active lifestyle can reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes.
A healthful diet and regular exercise are the first steps to managing type 2 diabetes. Weight loss is the cornerstone of treatment for people with this condition.
A study from 2010 has shown that increased physical activity and modest weight loss can reduce the risk for type 2 diabetes by up to 58 percent.
The article in Diabetes Care stated that people with type 2 diabetes should partake in 150 minutes a week of aerobic activities, including:
- swimming
- brisk walking
- bicycle riding
Breaking physical activity into five 30-minute sessions throughout the week can help a person manage this amount of exercise. This may be enough to help the body manage diabetes symptoms.
What Are Key Differences Between Type 1 Diabetes And Type 2 Diabetes
When comparing type 1 vs type 2 diabetes, there are a few major differences:
- Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune condition. You cant reverse type 1 diabetes, you can only manage it. Type 2 diabetes can be reversed with effective intervention and lifestyle changes.
- In type 1 diabetes, your pancreas is unable to produce insulin, whereas in type 2 diabetes, your insulin production is limited, and the response of your body to that insulin is decreased.
- A person with type 1 diabetes could die without their insulin medication. A person with type 2 diabetes should avoid treatment with insulin, unless their pancreas is completely failing.
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Can Everyone Achieve Remission
Despite losing weight to below their personal threshold, some people cant achieve remission. Professor Taylor acknowledges that a reduction in liver and pancreas fat is dependent on the ability of pancreatic beta cells to recover. If these cells are damaged beyond repair, perhaps from having type 2 diabetes for a very long time, then significant weight loss is unlikely to reverse diabetes successfully.
In his prize-winning lecture about the pathology of diabetes, Professor Roger Unger suggests that the build-up of fat in the pancreas causes ceramide to accumulate in the pancreas. Ceramide is toxic and kills pancreatic beta cells. It is possible that having type 2 diabetes long enough without treating it leads to too many pancreatic beta cells getting destroyed by this process. This means that even if individuals lose weight to below their personal fat threshold, they will not be able to go into remission.
This highlights the individual variability of type 2 diabetes and the complex systems at play when we talk about reversing it or going into remission.
This could partly explain why not all of the participants in the DiRECT study who lost a significant amount of weight went into remission. Perhaps some participants didnt lose enough weight to reach below their personal fat threshold, and those that did but didnt achieve remission possibly had irresolvable pancreatic damage.
Who Is Eligible For Weight
- You are more than 100 lbs. over your ideal body weight.
- You have a Body Mass Index of over 40.
- You have a BMI of over 35 and are experiencing severe negative health effects, such as high blood pressure or diabetes, related to being severely overweight.
- You cannot achieve a healthy body weight for a sustained period of time, even through medically-supervised dieting.
For bariatric surgery to treat diabetes:
- If you have a BMI of 35 or more with type 2 diabetes and/or other illnesses related to excess weight, and have not been able to achieve normal fasting blood sugar , you probably are a candidate for diabetes surgery.
- In some cases of inadequately controlled diabetes, patients may be eligible for bariatric surgery even if they have a BMI of less than 35.
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Mounting Health Crises Force A Change
With medication, my glucose levels dropped. I accepted that these medications would be with me for life. But after two years on the diabetes medications, my weight was unchanged, and I had pain in my hands, wrists, shoulders, and neck. My doctor diagnosed me with polyarthritis , and my medication list grew. At this point, I knew something needed to change. I was too young and active to be in this much pain. I had heard about the benefits of a whole-food, plant-based diet from a good friend of ours. But my family wasnt interested in changing, and I didnt have the willpower to do it on my own.
Then, my husband, Rod, suffered a widowmaker heart attack at age 52. Luckily, he made it to the hospital in time for a stent to correct a 100 percent blockage. Afterward, he, too, was ready for a change.
What If Your Diabetes Causes Disability
If your diabetes, either Type 1 or Type 2, has caused damage to your vital organs due to complications, and which in turn limits your activity, you may be able to apply for Social Security Disability.
The complications of diabetes that can greatly limit your activity and which may render you unqualified for Social Security Disability are:
- vision problems
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Recovering From Diabetic Coma
Once your blood glucose levels are in a healthy range, you should start to feel better almost immediately. If youve been unconscious, you should come around soon after treatment begins.
If the symptoms occurred for a while before treatment or if you were in a diabetic coma for several hours or longer, you could experience some brain damage. An untreated diabetic coma may also result in death.
People who receive emergency treatment for a diabetic coma usually recover fully. Your doctor may recommend that you wear a medical identification bracelet that explains the nature of your diabetes and other health concerns. This may help ensure you get the proper treatment for future problems quickly.
If you experience a diabetic coma without knowing you have diabetes, your doctor will work with you to develop a diabetes treatment plan. This will include medications, as well as recommendations for diet and exercise.
Careers That You Cannot Have With Diabetes
There are some careers that preclude you from working as a person with diabetes. These careers are not open to people with diabetes who are taking insulin. For example, if you have Type 1 diabetes, you are not allowed to pilot a plane commercially in the United States, no matter how well controlled your diabetes is. The FAA currently will not allow it.
However, if you want to pilot a plane in Canada or the United Kingdom, there are regulations set up that allow persons with Type 1 diabetes who are in good control of their diabetes to pilot a plane commercially.
We have looked at a lot of different careers at The Diabetes Council. We have looked at whether or not you can be in the military with diabetes, be a firefighter or a law enforcement officer with diabetes, astronaut, work as an EMT/paramedic, a long-distance truck driver, or be a pilot with diabetes. Soon, we will look at whether or not you can be a flight attendant with diabetes.
Please read the articles above to find out what the specifics of working in these careers with diabetes are, and what kind of rules and regulations you must follow.
You need to know that you have the Americans with Disabilities Act behind you. There is a wealth of information on work-related discrimination issues around diabetes on the American Diabetes Association website for you to research:
Update:
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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.
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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Does Being In Remission Prevent Future Complications
Having blood sugar, blood pressure and cholesterol levels in a healthy range is usually linked to a lower risk of complications, such as serious problems with your eyes, feet or heart. So, remission is likely to do the same.
However, we dont know enough to say confidently that remission leads to reduced complications. That is why you need regular health checks even when you are in remission and your blood sugar levels are healthy to ensure that any new, or existing complications, can be monitored and treated properly.
Tips For Aging Well With Type 2 Diabetes
- Lean on your medical team, which may consist of an endocrinologist, a podiatrist, an RDE and a CDE, and other specialty health professionals. In many cases, your primary care physician will be your main healthcare provider for diabetes care.
- Stick to your medication regimen, and be open to potential medication adjustments.
- Take insulin if your doctor says you need it.
Everyday Health editors attend the AADEs annual meeting to connect with certified diabetes educators, registered dietitians, and people like you, who are looking for ways to better manage blood sugar, diet, medication, and more. Check out information on this years meeting in Houston.
The ADA is considered the leading nonprofit for type 1 and type 2 diabetes education. The ADA’s free yearlong program Living With Diabetes offers top-of-the-line resources for anyone new to living with diabetes. Youll get access to their newsletter, expert Q& A session, and online support system, among other perks.
One of our favorite features from the AHA is a go-to resource for preventing heart disease: Know Diabetes by Heart. The ADA-supported initiative lays out a step-by-step guide for keeping your heart healthy while living with diabetes.
For more on the association between diabetes and heart disease, check out our article “Heart Disease The Diabetes Connection.”
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