Reversal of type 2 diabetes
👩‍⚕️When I was training, diabetes was seen as a progressive condition, getting steadily worse over time, needing increasing medication, at first tablets, then leading on to injectables and then insulin. After diagnosis it was a relentless progression to more and more medicines as the disease advanced.
đź—žHowever, there is now a shift away from this – diabetes is reversible, there is an increasing body of evidence which supports this.
There are various ways of achieving diabetic remission that have been described in studies:
1. Weight loss
2. Combination of low calorie diet and daily exercise
3. Very-low calorie diet (VLCD)
4. Mediterranean diet
5. Vegan diet
6. Intermittent fasting
7. Bariatric surgery
As yet, there is no consensus on the best way to reverse diabetes, however there are some common themes:
âś…A whole-food, plant based diet
âś…Minimal/no processed foods
âś…Increased activity is beneficial, but unlikely to be sufficient on its own – the whole-food diet is needed alongside exercise.
With the exception of bariatric surgery (which itself is potentially avoidable with the right dietary changes) having all these options to treat diabetes is really good news. đź©ş Reversing diabetes is not about needing doctors or medications or complicated treatments – it can be as simple as changing the way we eat (although admittedly, changing the way we eat may not necessarily be an easy or simple thing to do, but that’s a post for another day…)
Just some (of many) references:
đź“–S. Steven et al. Diabet. Med. 2013
đź“–Sarathi V, et al. J Nat Sci Biol Med. 2017
đź“–Gow ML, et al. Diabetologia. 2017
đź“–Lim EL, et al. Diabetologia. 2011
