We Need More Research
It’s fantastic news that, based on these results the NHS in England and Scotland have begun to pilot low calorie diet programmes.
But DiRECT isnt over yet.
Some participants are now being followed for another three years, and the cost-effectiveness of the programme is being evaluated. Were also funding the ReTUNE trial, to see if a similar approach to remission could work in people who are already a healthy weight.
And there will still be more questions to answer after DiRECT.
We need to fully understand how to help people to maintain their weight loss in the long-term. And we want to find out how much type 2 diabetes remission can protect people against diabetes-related complications later in life. We also need to know who could benefit most from treatments like this in the future, taking into account things like weight, ethnicity or how long someone has lived with type 2 diabetes.
We will continue to build our knowledge about type 2 diabetes remission, so we can make remission a reality for as many people as possible.
Overall More Than A Third Of People Were In Remission Of Their Type 2 Diabetes Two Years After Taking Part In The Programme
The second year results showed, again, that remission is closely linked to weight loss. Two thirds of those who lost more than 10kg were in remission after two years.
As well as resulting in remission for some people, the second year results showed us that there are extra benefits to taking part in a weight management programme, including a reported better quality of life, improved blood glucose control, and a reduced need for diabetes medications.
Dr Elizabeth Robertson, our Director of Research, says we’ll keep investing in more remission research:
These results further challenge the perception that type 2 diabetes needs to be a lifelong condition for everyone diagnosed with it. Remission of type 2 diabetes can be life-changing DiRECT offers one potential solution, we are committed to working with the researchers and the NHS to ensure these exciting findings reach people with type 2 diabetes as soon as possible. But we know type 2 diabetes is a complex condition, and this approach will not work for everyone. Thats why were continuing to invest in further research, to understand the biology underlying remission and find ways to make remission a reality for as many people as possible.
Is Type 2 Diabetes Reversible
Type 2 diabetes is a serious, long-term medical condition. It develops mostly in adults but is becoming more common in children as the rate at which people are developing obesity rises across all age groups.
Several factors contribute to type 2 diabetes. Being overweight or having obesity are the biggest risk factors.
Type 2 diabetes can be life-threatening. But if treated carefully, it can be managed or even reversed.
Healthline has partnered with Profile by Sanford to bring you more information about how to manage diabetes for better health through diet, exercise, and more.
Treatment for type 2 diabetes includes:
- monitoring your blood sugar levels
- using medications or insulin when needed
Doctors also recommend losing weight through diet and exercise. Some diabetes medications have weight loss as a side effect, which can also help to treat or manage diabetes.
To help manage your diabetes try:
- eating a healthy, well-balanced diet
- losing excess weight
Weight loss is the primary factor in those who have experienced a reversal of type 2 diabetes, as excess fat in the body affects the production of insulin and how its used.
In a small 2011 study, 11 people with type 2 diabetes drastically reduced their caloric intake for 8 weeks, reversing the course of their condition. Researchers noted that this is a small sample, and the participants had lived with the condition for only a few years.
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Is It Possible To Reverse Prediabetes Or Type 2 Diabetes
“Reversible” is a tricky word, says Lauren Harris-Pincus, MS, RDN, the founder of NutritionStarringYOU.com and author of The Everything Easy Pre-Diabetes Cookbook.
“It is certainly possible for someone to improve blood sugar enough through positive lifestyle interventions that it can revert to a normal range. However, the reasons that blood glucose was elevated still exist, such as genetic predisposition and damage to the beta cells of the pancreas that produce insulin,” Harris-Pincus says.
So “remission” might be a better term, since there may be some lingering internal challenges in terms of genetics and within the pancreas.
Earlier this year, diabetes experts at the American Diabetes Association , the Endocrine Society, the European Association for the Study of Diabetes, and Diabetes UK came to the consensus that people with type 2 diabetes are considered in “remission” after they reach an A1c of less than 6.5 percent for three months or more after stopping medications.
The possibility of remission depends on a few factors, licalzi says, including:
- How insulin resistant a person is by the time they are diagnosed
- How well their pancreas is working
- How aggressive they are with their dietary and lifestyle changes.
At her practice, she has coached people with A1Cs in the 10 percent range to a level well within the normal range, around 5.7 percent, in as little as 10 weeks. Adopting more of a whole-food, plant-based diet was key, she says.
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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What To Consider Before Following A Low
If you treat your diabetes with insulin or any other diabetes medication that puts you at risk of hypos, following a low-carb diet may increase this risk. Speak to your healthcare team about this so they can help you adjust your medications to reduce your risk of hypos. Your team may also support you to check your blood sugar levels more often.
I make sure I balance out my diet with what suits my insulin, but with a bit of tweaking, most things can be persuaded to suit my insulin!
I won’t eat a load of pasta with a side of garlic bread and not much else, because the carb load would be difficult to bolus for. But neither would I eat a completely carb free meal. It’s all a question of balance, and a healthy diet is good for all of us, diabetic or not.
– Online forum user living with type 1.
Depending on the approach, following a low-carb diet may also lead to other side effects, such as constipation or bad breath.
Although these can be unpleasant, they are usually temporary and shouldnt be harmful in the long term. Speak to your healthcare professional if youre concerned about any of these.
Its really important to first reduce your carb intake from unhealthy sources such as sugary drinks, pizzas, cakes, biscuits, chips, white bread, fruit juices and smoothies.
What Happens After You Reverse Type 2 Diabetes
Type 2 diabetes reversal doesnt happen all at once, but youll start to notice changes in the short-term.
Youll need less medication for diabetes management, healthy insulin levels, and youll probably experience healthy weight loss and have more energy. You also might notice that your mood has changed for the better, and your immune health has improved.
Ultimately, if you stick with a low-fat, plant-based, whole-food diet and daily movement, youll notice long-term improvements in your overall health, fitness, and mood, and turn type 2 diabetes to a thing of the past.
However, one thing thats very important is making those changes stick, because youre never out of the woods so to speak, especially as the body ages. The same lifestyle changes that caused type 2 diabetes can cause them again, even after being reversed.
Hopefully, this shouldnt sound scary. We believe that the benefits of a proper diet and daily movement are positive and self-supporting. You wont need medication anymore, or have to fear for your health. And when you maintain good base health, a red-light meal every once in a while wont be dangerous.
Still, we understand that this can be a significant change, and its not always easy to make changes and stay committed. Thats why we founded Mastering Diabetes.
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Type Of Diabetes Is Irreversible
Let us understand which type of diabetes is irreversible and which is reversible in order to get the answer to this question :
There are some diabetes types that are irreversible.
- Type-1 diabetes falls in the irreversible category as the body doesnt produce insulin.
- Pancreatic diabetes is also another type of diabetes which falls under the irreversible diabetes category because the pancreas is damaged because of consumption of alcohol or due to genetic abnormality.
- Third type of diabetes which falls under this category is LADA this is similar to type-1 diabetes, but its progression is slow compared to type-1.
- Genetic diabetes is also an irreversible kind of diabetes.
Diabetes types that are reversible: Type 2 diabetes is diabetes that makes insulin, but their cells dont use it as well as they should. People with type 2 diabetes are said to have insulin resistance. Type 2 diabetes is reversible in some cases which include cases where patients have :
- High weight/obesity
- Insulin resistance
- Age-related diabetes You must have seen ads on social media to get rid of diabetes in 4-5 days which are always. Its not an easy task to reverse diabetes. Its possible to reverse diabetes in a scientific way.
Is It Possible To Reverse Type 1 Diabetes
At the moment, type 1 diabetes cannot be reversed. Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease, and reversing it would require a method of preventing the bodys immune system from attacking its own insulin-producing cells.
Research is currently trying find a type 1 diabetes vaccine which could help to one day reverse the condition.
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Reductions In Diabetes Medications
Diabetes medications all have the same goalâto reduce elevated blood sugar. The common classes include:
- Insulin
- Sulfonylureas
- GLP-1 receptor agonists
- Metformin
When your blood sugar is no longer chronically elevated, these blood-sugar-lowering medications are no longer necessary. An ongoing study has shown that sustained nutritional ketosis can lead to the permanent removal of these medications.¹ⰠMedications that rapidly reduce blood sugar need to be removed first, such as insulin and sulfonylureas, sometimes in as little as 2 days to 2 weeks. Other medications like SGLT-2 inhibitors, DPP-4 inhibitors, GLP-1 receptor agonists, and metformin can be removed as long as you maintain normal blood sugar.
If you are on diabetes or blood pressure medications, Virta highly recommends that you get medical supervision before making any dietary changes.
So What Foods Increase Insulin Production
All carbohydrates to some degree at least will raise your blood insulin levels. That is why I consider type 2 diabetes a form of carbohydrate intolerance. Protein can also raise levels but to a much lesser degree. The only macronutrient that keeps your insulin levels and, therefore, your blood sugar stable is FAT! Therefore, if you are trying to reduce insulin levels, you need to reduce your amount of certain carbohydrates and replace them instead with healthy, natural fats.
What does that mean in terms of actual FOOD CHOICES though?
When I say healthy, natural fat think nuts and seeds, avocados, omega 3 fats , extra virgin olive oil and whole eggs.
And when I talk about reducing certain carbohydrates, I mainly mean reducing your intake of refined carbohydrates such as pasta, rice and bread. Non starchy vegetables are fine and can be eaten in abundance. Many fruits are packed with carbohydrates, so if youre trying to reduce your carb intake, try and limit your intake to low-carb fruit, such as rhubarb, watermelon, berries, peaches and blackberries.
It is really important to say that I do not believe that there is one perfect diet for everyone. Different people respond to different diets.
However, if you have a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes or if you have been told you are at high risk or if you have significant abdominal obesity, here are 11 ways to start reversing the effects immediately:
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How Do You Reverse Diabetes
The strongest evidence we have at the moment suggests that type 2 diabetes is mainly put into remission by weight loss. Remission is more likely if you lose weight as soon as possible after your diabetes diagnosis. However, we do know of people who have put their diabetes into remission 25 years after diagnosis.
If you have obesity, your diabetes is more likely to go into remission if you lose a substantial amount of weight 15kg as quickly and safely as possible following diagnosis.
Its important to know that not everyone who loses this much weight will be able to put their diabetes into remission. But losing 15kg comes with a lot of health benefits, even if you dont lead to remission. Research shows that getting support to lose just 5% of your body weight can have huge benefits for your health. Losing extra weight can lead to:
fewer medications
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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A Bit Of Background On Direct
We awarded our largest ever research grant of £2.5 million to help our scientists find out if an intensive low-calorie, diet-based, weight management programme can put type 2 diabetes into remission, and keep it there. The study is also testing if this can be delivered entirely within the NHS.
Professor Roy Taylor at Newcastle University and Professor Mike Lean at the University of Glasgow are leading the study.
Theyre building on the results of two previous smaller studies, which gave us the first evidence that a low-calorie diet approach could put type 2 diabetes into remission.
These studies at Newcastle University tested 11 and 30 people with type 2 diabetes. After eight weeks on the low-calorie diet, participants had reduced the amount of fat in their liver and pancreas. This helped them produce insulin again and put their type 2 diabetes into remission. Some people were still in remission six months after the diet.
Both of these studies were very small, happened in a research environment and only followed participants for a short time. DiRECT was designed to help us build on these findings and understand more about the long-term effects of this programme and how it could be used in a real-life setting.
Is Type 2 Diabetes Reversible We Asked The Experts
Plus, get their best tips for balancing blood sugar.
Take a look around your neighborhood, office, or supermarket. You can’t tell by looking, but if your environment matches the country’s average, a full 1 in 10 of the people you see has been diagnosed with diabetes, according to the latest data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . Upwards of 90 percent of those have type 2 diabetes.
“Type 2 diabetes, also referred to as ‘insulin-resistant diabetes,’ usually takes years to develop,” says Diana Licalzi, MS, RD, the co-founder of Reversing T2D in Boulder, Colo. “So to understand the process of how this condition progresses from prediabetes to type 2 diabetes, it’s important to understand how insulin normally works in our body.”
When we eat carbohydrates, one of the three major macronutrients along with protein and fat, they’re broken down into glucose our body and brain’s preferred energy source. Once glucose enters the bloodstream, our pancreas receives a message to release a hormone called insulin. Insulin acts like a key, opening “locks,” or channels, on the surface of our cells. Once the channels open, glucose can funnel out of the bloodstream and into our cells, and our cells can then utilize this glucose for energy or store it for later use.
As time progresses, some bodies are home to cells that stop responding to insulin. The pancreas hustles as much as possible to keep pace and pump out more insulin, but in time, it can get overwhelmed.
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