Posted on 06/22/2018 2:42:10 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Diabetes is reversible. That’s the exciting conclusion of a study I’m leading at Indiana University Health.
Two hundred and sixty-two patients with type-2 diabetes recently completed one year of a clinical trial examining the impact of a low-carbohydrate diet, which limits foods such as grains and pasta while boosting consumption of healthy fats such as avocados and butter. The diet didn’t restrict calories.
Using smartphone technology, health coaches worked with participants while physicians monitored and adjusted medications.
A control group of 87 patients with diabetes received the American Diabetes Association standard nutritional treatment.
A full 94 percent of patients on the low-carb intervention have been able to reduce or eliminate their need for insulin. For six in 10 patients, average blood sugar levels fell so low that, technically, they had reversed their diabetes.
These findings are promising for treating one of America’s deadliest, most expensive diseases.
Diabetes is a public health emergency. Thirty million Americans suffer from diabetes. The illness is the nation’s seventh leading killer, with serious side effects such as heart disease, kidney damage, limb amputation and blindness. Last year, diabetes cost the country approximately $327 billion in medical bills and lost productivity.
Despite this staggering cost, health experts have focused on managing the disease rather than reversing it. When patients consult the ADA website, they learn that “there is no cure for type 2 diabetes, but it can be managed.”
“Management” usually involves costly medications. Medical expenditures for people with diabetes total about $13,700 per year—double the figure for people without the disease.
Bariatric surgery, the procedure that helps people lose weight by stapling, binding or removing part of the stomach, has even become a “first line” treatment for obese individuals with diabetes. This procedure was once seen as a last resort, as it costs approximately $26,000 and one in six patients experiences complications. Yet in 2016, the ADA led 45 international diabetes organizations to begin recommending the surgery as standard treatment.
That’s misguided. Plenty of research—including our own—shows that dietary adjustments can curb diabetes. A 2017 study from University of California San Francisco found that 60 percent of diabetic patients put on a very low-carb diet were able to stop common medications for their condition at one year. A 2008 study found that 95 percent of patients on a low-carb diet either cut back on diabetes medications or stopped taking them entirely.
With conventional treatment regimens, according to a study in Diabetes Care, only 0.1 percent of patients achieve complete remission.
Nutrition-centric treatment was once the standard. In the 20th century, people with diabetes were told to avoid foods high in carbohydrates. That treatment fell from favor with the commercialization of insulin. Employing insulin, patients could again consume carbohydrates, and when the U.S. government launched its low-fat, high-carbohydrate advice via the dietary guidelines in 1980, those with diabetes fell in line with everyday Americans, eating bread and pasta with gusto.
Critics worry that low-carb diets are too difficult. But in our study, 83 percent of patients stayed with it. With individualized support, changing a grocery list is far less daunting than a lifetime of dependency on costly medications.
Reversing diabetes is possible—and should be our goal.
*****
Sarah Hallberg, DO, MS, is the medical director and founder of the Medically Supervised Weight Loss Program at Indiana University Health and an adjunct professor at Indiana University’s School of Medicine.
what is considered low carb?...can you have some carbs? or none at all....which is very hard to do and not very satisfying...
Try fasting.
And read Jason Fung’s books.
He’s got a blog somewhere that’s good too.
I got my A1C below 5 again by fasting. And my bp was 100/60
BFL
Great information by many, my thanks to you all.
“A full 94 percent of patients on the low-carb intervention have been able to reduce or eliminate their need for insulin. “
Type 2 diabetics need insulin?
Mr. b didn’t believe me for years. Just this year, he was finally forced to do something about his numbers. He’s now a believer in LC... but still cheats.
And drink water.
I like Dr. Fung’s posts .... been using DietDoctor.com since May 1 when I decided to “do something” about weight issues so I didn’t end up with Type 2. So far, so good .... with the website & the weight project :-)
I am 68 and had trouble with weight all my life. I lost 70 lbs using the intermittent fasting diet: Low carb with restricted eating in a daily 6 hour window.
Got off all meds, glucose normal, blood pressure nomal. Just finishing 1 year on the diet. Very easy. One of my daughters has also lost 15lb. Check Dr. Berg’s video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwCRjwDs1Ek&index=2&list=PL9DJjunqJrUit7oPiqLk7qCWsjsU5UgMj&t=23s
A good percentage of them do, yes.
This is true. In 2016 my blood glucose was 122, and my doctor said the magic word "pre-diabetic," which definitely caught my attention. So I started reading books on the subject and began to change my diet. Last year my blood glucose dropped to 92, back in the normal range. The key: Cut back on the bad carbs, sugars, high fructose corn syrup, soda pop, processed foods, etc. Eat more vergetables and fruits, drink more water. It works.
Mainly, just dump the white carbs - sugar, flour, bananas and corn.
Bariatric surgery isn’t the cure all. It does nothing to curb appetites. If someone wants to lose the weight like those who have gone under the knife then just follow the diet. It’s the diet that causes the weight to fall off, not the surgery. When these patients start pigging out, they balloon back up.
by eating less white carbs and eating butter and fats, my Type II diabetes has stabilized. A1c has come down a little to permissable levels.
Losing 35 pounds was also a faactor.
The diagnosis is strictly by the numbers. there are no real symptoms
Eat more fat. See Dr Berg’s video on my last post.
Had a German doctor talk to me in bed the last time I was in the VA hospital. He told me losing 100lbs would pretty much reverse the diabetes.
My sugar dropped from 8.1 to 6.9 on the diet but the dietician gave me another diet. Sugar is back in 7. Range. (Dropped 15 pounds that stayed off)
Think I’ll go back on Dr Sarah’s diet. It’s easy and lots of good recipes.
No white rice or white potato and stay away from grains and artificial sugars.
It works (Dietitian is not very bright. )
This is a good one! BUMP to DEFEAT DIABETES MELLITUS!
600mg Alpha Lipoic Acid once a day (& cut the carbs) ?
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