How To Reverse Type 2 Diabetes

How Do We Measure The Reversal Of Type 2 Diabetes

The usual marker of having reversed type 2 diabetes is when the condition is put into remission. There is some debate about the exact definition of remission. Diabetes UK defines remission as meeting these 3 criteria:

HbA1c refers to red blood cells that have glucose attached to them. HbA1c levels are used because our blood glucose levels constantly change throughout the day based on when/what we eat and physical activity. Taking a one-off blood sugar measurement at a specific timepoint doesnt help us to diagnose type 2 diabetes.

When the body isnt able to use glucose properly, as with type 2 diabetes, it sticks to the red blood cells and circulates through our blood vessels. Since red blood cells have an average life of 3-4 months, HbA1c helps us to see the average blood glucose levels over a 2-3 month period.

For an individual with type 2 diabetes, the aim is to A) get into remission and B) get HbA1c levels as close to the healthy range as possible.

It is worth noting that the table above is a rough guide that can be useful for diagnosis, but it is still possible to have type 2 diabetes with an HbA1c level below 48 mmol/mol.

What Is Needed To Cure Type 1 Diabetes

Type 1 diabetes happens when the body doesnt make insulin at all, or very little of it. The bodys immune system destroys the cells in the pancreas that are responsible for making insulin. A cure for T1D needs to do two things:

So far, there is no treatment that does this. The best treatments we have are medications and devices that do the pancreas job of making insulin. But that job is easier said than done. Insulin works in a very fine balance with other hormones to respond to the foods you eat. The right amount has to be released at the right time.

This is why it is so important if you have Type 1 diabetes to check blood sugars often, know what you eat, and take the right amount of insulin medication. You need to make sure you get enough insulin, but too much can be deadly: Low blood sugar is a true medical emergency.

Managing your blood sugar can be tough in diabetes treatment plans because youre trying to copy a complicated system that the body uses to keep blood glucose in a very tight range at all times. Many things are happening in the background that people without diabetes take for granted.

Diabetes Is Reversible In Kids Too

Type 2 diabetes has long been viewed as a disease that affects adults, but more children than ever are developing it today, especially those in Hispanic and other minority communities, says Sheila Perez-Colon, M.D., a pediatric endocrinologist and diabetes expert in Miami. As with grownups, kids with type 2 can likely reverse their condition by making smart food choices. Weight is a risk factor, so if your child is overweight, youll want to work with your pediatrician to develop healthy habits.

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The Cause Of Diabetes

Diabetes is an illness related to elevated blood sugar levels. When you stop releasing and responding to normal amounts of insulin after eating foods with carbohydrates, sugar and fats, you have diabetes. Insulin, a hormone thats broken down and transported to cells to be used as energy, is released by the pancreas to help with the storage of sugar and fats. But people with diabetes dont respond to insulin properly, which causes high blood sugar levels and diabetes symptoms.

Its important to note that theres a difference between type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Heres an explanation of the two types of diabetes and what causes these conditions:

Type 1 Diabetes

Type 1 diabetes is commonly called juvenile diabetes because it tends to develop at a younger age, typically before a person turns 20 years old. Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease where the immune system attacks the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas.

The damage to the pancreatic cells leads to a reduced ability or complete inability to create insulin. Some of the common causes that trigger this autoimmune response may include a virus, genetically modified organisms, heavy metals, or foods like wheat, cows milk and soy.

The reason foods like wheat and cows milk have been linked to diabetes is because they contain the proteins gluten and A1 casein. These proteins can cause leaky gut, which in turn causes systemic inflammation throughout the body and over time can lead to autoimmune disease.

Who Can Help Me Reverse Diabetes

People with diabetes should start with their primary care provider for guidance on reversing the condition and diabetes care. Their provider may refer them to a Diabetes Self-Management Education and Support service. A DSMES healthcare team includes diabetes educators such as doctors, nurses, dietitians, pharmacists, and other healthcare providers with special training and experience. The team helps diabetes patients to learn more about the condition and diabetes management.

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Implication For Management Of Type 2 Diabetes

The extent of weight loss required to reverse type 2 diabetes is much greater than conventionally advised. A clear distinction must be made between weight loss that improves glucose control but leaves blood glucose levels abnormal and weight loss of sufficient degree to normalize pancreatic function. The Belfast diet study provides an example of moderate weight loss leading to reasonably controlled, yet persistent diabetes. This study showed that a mean weight loss of 11 kg decreased fasting blood glucose levels from 10.4 to 7.0 mmol/L but that this abnormal level presaged the all-too-familiar deterioration of control .

The role of physical activity must be considered. Increased levels of daily activity bring about decreases in liver fat stores , and a single bout of exercise substantially decreases both de novo lipogenesis and plasma VLDL . Several studies demonstrated that calorie control combined with exercise is much more successful than calorie restriction alone . However, exercise programs alone produce no weight loss for overweight middle-aged people . The necessary initial major loss of body weight demands a substantial reduction in energy intake. After weight loss, steady weight is most effectively achieved by a combination of dietary restriction and physical activity. Both aerobic and resistance exercise are effective . The critical factor is sustainability.

Picking Low Glycemic Index Foods

The Glycemic file quantifies the bodys glucose reaction to nourishments containing starches. The higher the glycemic record of food, the more the glucose will ascend in the wake of eating it. To stay away from high glucose, have a go at eating nourishments with a low glycemic file.

Meat, eggs, grain, oats, beans, yams, sweet potatoes, lentils, natural products, and non-boring vegetables are incredible instances of low glycemic file nourishments.

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Can You Reverse Diabetes

Diabetes occurs when your blood sugar levels are too high. Blood glucose is the bodys primary source of energy. Its absorbed from food and enters cells with the help of the hormone insulin, which the pancreas makes.

More than 34 million Americans have diabetes, and around 90%-95% of them have Type 2. It mostly affects people over the age of 45, but there is increasingly a higher incidence in children and young adults.

Moderate Your Starch Consumption

Starches are separated into glucose and different sugars by processing. Thus, the more starches you eat, the higher your glucose will be. To control diabetes, you likewise need to maintain your starch consumption.

Restricting your starch will diminish the weight on your body to create enough insulin and decrease glucose levels.

It is likewise essential to take a base measure of sugar, at any rate, to guarantee your metabolic cycles continue running. So balance is significant, excessively little or a lot of, can both be tricky.

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How Long Does It Take To Reverse Type 2 Diabetes

This is really a question that is dependent on a number of factors, like how long you have had it, how serious your condition is or how overweight you are.

Losing excess body weight can have a dramatic effect on helping reversing type 2 diabetes, but without knowing what weight you are and what your ideal healthy weight should be, it will be hard to assess how long it would take.

This is something you are going to have to discuss with your doctor.

Diabetes Can Be Reversible

Probably the biggest misconception about diabetes is this: Once youve got it, youve got it for life. Not true, according to Beverly Yates, a naturopathic doctor and diabetes expert in San Francisco. While there are variables about the disease that you cant control, theres plenty that you can, and in some cases, type 2 diabetes is reversible. Through diet changes, weight loss, and constant commitment, you may be able to get blood sugar levels under control without medication.

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What Causes The Deterioration In Control

The major pathophysiological change underlying the steady worsening of blood glucose control is a steady decrease in -cell function, as shown by modelling -cell function from the UK Prospective Diabetes Study data set . Indeed, at the time of diagnosis, it is already down to 50% of normal. Then it deteriorates in a depressingly linear fashion. The rate of decline in glucose tolerance is strongly related to the loss of -cell function, whilst insulin resistance in muscle changes little ,. This mirrors observations on populations with high incidence of Type 2 diabetes, in which transition from hyperinsulinaemic normal glucose tolerance to overt diabetes involved a further loss of acute -cell competence ,.

Change in fasting plasma glucose during the 13 years prior to onset of Type 2 diabetes. These data from the Whitehall II study demonstrate the elevation of plasma glucose within the normal range for many years, but a sudden breakdown of control mechanisms around 2 years prior to diagnosis. Data replotted from Tabak et al. , with permission from Elsevier .

Fat Is A Source Of Energy That Does Not Raise Your Blood Sugar

Unlike carbs or protein, fat cannot be broken down or converted into glucose efficiently. Furthermore, fat does not require insulin to get into cells to be used for energy, thereby bypassing the problem of insulin resistance. In fact, high insulin levels impair the bodyâs ability to use fat for fuel, driving it instead into fat cells for storage.

To adapt your metabolism to using fat as your main source of energy, dietary carbohydrates must be reduced to below your unique tolerance level. When you do this, your blood insulin level will come down, giving your body increased ability to burn both the fats you eat and those which you have in storage. For most people, this means switching from the standard recommended high carb, moderate protein, and low fat diet to a high fat, moderate protein, and low carb diet. Fat adaptation does not happen overnightâit can take anywhere from 3 to 6 weeks for most of its benefits to occur, and possibly longer for the full benefits to occur.

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How To Naturally Reverse Type 2 Diabetes

If your doctor has diagnosed you with prediabetes, there are ways in which you can slow the process of it developing into Type 2 diabetes or even stop it. Type 2 diabetes is the most common type of diabetes and it occurs when your pancreas does not produce enough insulin to allow sugar to enter your cells to use for energy. When your body does not use insulin well, sugar can build up in your blood. . Type 2 Diabetes. Retrieved from NIDDK: https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/diabetes/overview/what-is-diabetes/type-2-diabetes))

If you have experiencing the following systems, see your doctor to get tested. An A1C test can be used to monitor your blood sugar for over 3 months. Symptoms include:

• Frequent urination
• Numbness or tingling in hands or feet
• Very dry skin
• Unusual number of infections. Diabetes Symptoms. Retrieved from CDC: https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/basics/symptoms.html))

You do not have to accept diabetes. You can reverse it or even stop it by tweaking your diet and lifestyle.

Coaching To Help You Reverse Insulin Resistance

At Mastering Diabetes, we have a comprehensive coaching program based on years of research that has helped hundreds of people reverse their type 2 diabetes.

In the program, you can get access to hundreds of articles, recipes, and tips on how to eat healthy and reverse insulin resistance, and you can get coaching from diabetes experts, either in group or one-on-one sessions.

Theres also a vibrant community of people on your exact same journey, working to reverse insulin resistance and stay on top of their health together.

Controlling and reversing type 2 diabetes is entirely within your control. You just have to take the right steps!

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Gastric Bypass Surgery Improves Blood Sugar Handling and Insulin Sensitivity, Study Finds — ScienceDaily. .

Gastric Bypass Surgery: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia. .

Han, Ling, Lijin Ji, Jing Chang, Jian Wen, Wenting Zhao, Hongli Shi, Linuo Zhou, et al. Peripheral Neuropathy Is Associated with Insulin Resistance Independent of Metabolic Syndrome. Diabetology & Metabolic Syndrome 7, no. 1 : 14. .

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Reversing Diabetes Takes A Holistic Approach

Its not just about diet and exercisecontrolling stress and poor sleep habits are also key to staying on top of type 2 and prediabetes, Yates says. Sticking to a consistent sleep routineshutting down screens an hour before bed and enjoying something relaxing like a bathcan help you get the deep sleep you need to help with insulin resistance. Developing go-to ways to keep calm in chaotic times can also help, so cue up a meditation app.

• Hispanic Population and Diabetes: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. . National Diabetes Statistics Report 2020: Estimates of Diabetes and Its Burden in the U.S. cdc.gov/diabetes/pdfs/data/statistics/national-diabetes-statistics-report.pdf

• Adults, Kids and Type 2 Diabetes: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. . Rates of New Diagnosed Cases of Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes Continue to Rise Among Children, Teens. cdc.gov/diabetes/research/reports/children-diabetes-rates-rise.html

• Diabetes and Weight Loss: National Institutes of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disease. . Achieving Type 2 Diabetes Remission through Weight Loss. niddk.nih.gov/health-information/professionals/diabetes-discoveries-practice/achieving-type-2-diabetes-remission-through-weight-loss

• Hispanic Community and Exercise: Outdoor Industry Foundation. . The Hispanic Community and Outdoor Recreation. develop.outdoorindustry.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/ResearchHispanic.pdf

Reversing Type 2 Diabetes

About 1 in 10 Americans have diabetes, and approximately 90 to 95 percent of them have type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes is a chronic condition that affects the way your body uses insulin, a hormone that regulates the movement of sugar into your cells. This condition causes your body to either resist the effects of insulin or not produce enough insulin to maintain normal glucose levels.

Type 2 diabetes most often develops in people over age 45, but it also affects kids and teens, typically due to childhood obesity.

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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.

Control Your Food Portions

A significant mental advance in controlling diabetes is controlling the amount you eat. It tends to be exceptionally hard to lessen the measure of food you expend unexpectedly. So checking the size and serving of every feast can decrease your calorie admission and resulting glucose spikes.

You can control the sum you eat by estimating and gauging parcels, utilizing littler plates, abstaining from indulging at eateries, perusing food names, and checking serving sizes, keeping a food diary, and eating gradually.

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