Many experts believe that type 2 diabetes is an incurable disease that only worsens over time.However, new research suggests the extraordinary possibility of reverse the disease in certain people through drastic changes in their diet.
Recently, a small clinical study in the United Kingdom analyzed the effects of a strict liquid diet in 30 people who had lived with type 2 diabetes for up to 23 years.Almost half of the participants had a remission that lasted six months after finishing the diet.Although the study was small, its findings give hope to the millions who thought they should live with that incurable disease.
Allan Tutty, who reversed his type 2 diabetes through a special diet, on the beach of his hometown Tunderland, England.
"This implies a radical change in our understanding about type 2 diabetes," said Dr. Roy Taylor, a professor at Newcastle University, in the United Kingdom, and main author of the study."If we can go beyond the message 'Yes, you have an irreversible disease' A 'You will no longer take diabetes medications, you will not have to wait in medical offices, they will not charge you excessively for medical charges', there is something extremely motivating."
It is not the first time that people manage to reverse type 2 diabetes by lossing a large amount of weight a short time after receiving the diagnosis.Studies also show that obese individuals who have undergone bariatric surgery often see how the disease disappears even before they have lost a lot of weight.
The new study, published in Diabetes Care, found that this reversal after the diet can last for at least six months, as long as patients do not recover excessive weight.It can even happen in people who have suffered the disease for a long time.
The researchers followed the participants for eight weeks in which they consumed a strict diet of low calorie smoothies and also in the posterior period, while they resumed their normal diet.Six months later, those who had presented remission immediately after the diet were still without diabetes.Although most of those who reversed their illness had suffered for less than four years, some had been diabetics for more than eight years.
Allan Tutty near his home in Sunderland, England.He mentioned that the doctors told him: “Look, you have it;Accept it.There is no cure. ”Robert Ormerod for The New York Times
When Tutty, 57, learned that he had type 2 diabetes five years ago, he asked the experts if he had cure.“They told me:‘ Look, you have it;Accept it.There is no cure, ”said Tutty, who manages a home for people with brain injuries in Newcastle.
Later Tutty found a notice that sought volunteers for a diabetes study that said: "Would you like to have the opportunity to reverse your illness?"
Tutty took the opportunity and thus became one of the 30 men and women between 25 and 80 years old.Tutty was one of the 13 participants whose glucose in fasting plasma decreased, and during the follow -up of six months it remained below the seven millimoles per liter (or 126 milligrams per deciliter) that define diabetes.Although Tutty ended the study almost three years ago, its fasting blood sugar level continues to oscillate between 5.2 and 5.6 millimoles per liter, he said.
Type 2 diabetes is developed when the body cannot properly use insulin or cannot produce enough insulin, so it cannot use or save glucose (a sugar form) properly and then it goes to the bloodstream, sothatSugar levels increase.In the United States, diabetes has been diagnosed to about 8.9 percent of adults of 20 years or older, and health officials estimate that there is another 3.5 percent without a diagnosis.
Although nobody knows exactly why diet can reverse diabetes, Dr. Taylor said the explanation may be related to the way the body keeps fat.Excess fat in the liver can go to the pancreas, where it inhibits insulin secretion and the response of the liver to insulin, which causes insulin resistance and therefore diabetes.
Following a very low calorie diet can allow the body to use the fat that is in the liver, which leads to fat levels in the pancreas also decrease.That "awakens" insulin producing cells in the pancreas, which normalizes glucose levels.
While some previous studies had shown that blood sugar can be normalized after significant weight loss, endocrinologists involved in the study said they were impressed by the fact that sugar levels remained low for several months afterfinished the diet.
"Decrease caloric intake, regardless of what is the reason, brings with it a rapid improvement in glucose control," said Dr. Robert Lash, president of the Clinical Affairs Committee of the Endocrinology Society and Professor of Internal Medicine inThe University of Michigan."The exciting thing is that the improvement remained when the participants returned to a diet with a normal amount of calories."
However, and despite the fact that the research suggests the possibility of a cure, there are still questions about how much the effect will last and if it can work in the typical patient with diabetes.
For Dr. George King, head scientist at the Joslin Diabetes Center and professor at Harvard's Faculty of Medicine, the key question is: people can maintain weight loss and "continue with reversal for many, many years"?
"That is the difficult part," he added.
Dr. King mentioned that even short -term remission would reduce or eliminate some of the serious complications associated with diabetes, such as nerve damage or kidney, loss of vision, heart attacks and heart attacks.However, structured weight programs are expensive and often there is no coverage from insurance, in addition to doctors (who often know very little about nutrition) they usually do not spend time to advise their patients about an adequate diet, said Dr. King.
The participants in the study in Newcastle, which included overweight and extremely obese people, were asked to stop taking their medicine for the treatment of diabetes and start with a diet of 600 to 700 calories per day, which consisted of threeDiet liquefied at mealt and 500 grams of vegetables without starch per day.
Tutty, who weighed approximately 97 kilos before the study, lost a little more than 14 kilos, the average weight lost in the study.The participants of the study more likely to respond to the treatment were about 50 years on average and were younger than those who did not respond.Those who responded were also healthier before the study: they had taken fewer medications and had higher serum insulin levels at the basal point.
Many of the people who responded are still in the prediabetic area and at risk of developing diabetes, Dr. Taylor mentioned.“It is not fair to say that they normalized completely, but they have a blood sugar level with which we do not expect to see the serious complications associated with diabetes.These are very good news. ”
Source: RobertOrmerod for The New York Times
