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.
Restricting intake to a certain fixed daytime period kicks ass.
TRF>FMD, although I have nothing against FMD for people that can hack it.
TRF is brainless and yet makes perfect sense.
Her undergrad work was as a dietitian. More doctors should have that background.
Yep. Keto diet works. Carbs are addictive, and there’s withdrawal, at first. Once you get past THAT, it’s manageable.
Took my A1C from 12.7 to 5.5 with diet, exercise and metformin. Should be able to ditch the metformin soon.
Limit your daily carbs to 30 grams. Once reaching goal, many will add to that number until they feel comfortable.
Thirty may seem daunting at first but it really isn’t. Stick with lc veggies and meat. Learn to make substitutions like veggie sticks with dip instead of chips and dip. There are lc chocolate candies but they tend to stall me but are fine if you need an occasional chocolate fix.
If you eat eggs, bacon and toast with jelly for breakfast, just eliminate the toast or substitute it with flaxmeal pancakes with sugar free syrup. When everyone wants to go out for Taco Tuesday, dump the taco shells and have a taco salad. Want chicken parm for dinner? Fry it with almond flour instead of regular all purpose flour (store bought almond flour is expensive so toss some almonds in the blender/food processor). Or instead of sautéed apples with your pork chops, substitute them with chayote squash seasoned with cinnamon and lc sweetener.
If you enjoy a container of yogurt as an afternoon snack, get a low carb (7 carbs per 6 oz serving) Greek yogurt with a couple of strawberries and a squirt of sf honey or lc sweetener. Nuts are also good for a quick snack and almonds come in all sorts of flavors just check the nutrition label to make sure it doesn’t have sugar. Usually, 20 almonds = 2 carbs (total carbs minus the fiber). Also, veggie sticks. Pork rinds may take getting used to but a dash of cinnamon and lc sweetener makes them tasty or eat them as tortilla chips with guacamole,
As with any diet, no matter what anyone says, watch your calories as well.
I’m here if you have any questions on low carb so ask away. Linda’s site has a food/grocery list and her recipes have stars to indicate appropriate for induction/beginning the diet - http://www.genaw.com/lowcarb/recipes.html . I linked the “little” page so don’t be scared off. Click on a recipe and you’ll see her comments and recommendations.
BFL
It is probably true for most people with Type II. I did it but you have to be faithful about it.
These studies will take ages to become mainstream. There is far too much money to be made managing diabetes. How many commercials do you see each evening? The powerhouses of money medicine will not go quietly on this.
It will be up to informed individuals to do it on their own or to find a coach. What you eat is not against the law yet.
This was led by an osteopath. Not quite the same.
What an archaic opinion. Osteopaths get the very same education an M.D. gets, plus spinal manipulations. (Which most rarely use). As an RN, I have worked with both M.D.’s and Osteopaths. The only difference is a very occasional prejudice, completely unfounded, such as yours.
I’ve done several 4-5 day fasts. Those seem to have the most effect for me. Seems to have begun to reverse my severe insulin resistance. It was so bad even LC wasn’t doing the trick with weight loss anymore. I blame diet drinks. They stimulate an insulin response. I lived on them (I know, bad) so my pancreas was always working. Poor thing.
I ditched metformin about 6m ago. This was A1C below 5 unmedicated.
You’ll get there. Fasting for several days from a basis of ketosis is working to reverse my insulin resistance.
I know for a fact that this works.
It worked for me.
It worked for others I know who have turned to the low carb diet.
Severely limiting your carb intake is the key.
Me too, My A1c dropped from 7.2 down to 5.9 Still on 2000 mg of Metformin each day but this may be on the chopping block too.
You want more than low carbs, you want Keto, (less than 5g of carbs daily, and sugar has to be completely eliminated to do that. One tsp of sugar has 4 grams)
Ping ping ping ping!
I’ve dropped 15 lbs since May 1 using guidelines on DietDoctor (I’m doing Keto with 16:8 intermittent fasting) .... feel great, more energy & just doing something about the weight has given me a real mental boost for the better.
bflr
Medical doctors are notoriously ignorant of dietary programs. Most only know how to prescribe.
This treatment has been around for several years bud probably not endorsed by AMA and CDC.
Ab so bleeping lutely. It is so reversible. Start with diet first because it’s the easiest, but add walking or other exercise as you start gaining energy.
Drop all sugars, fruits, breads, pastas. Eat natural starches like potatoes and root vegetables, maybe a little seeds, nuts, oatmeal. Most of your diet should be protein in natural clean form (clean animals - meat and dairy). This will include lots of healthy fat. Vegetables and beans make up the rest of your diet. Limit the carbs to under 100g a day and just focus on protein. No desserts except maybe 85% dark chocolate in tiny quantity. No fake sugars or other things that taste sweet. No juice or soda or sweet drinks. No alcohol if possible, or sticking to unsweetened hard liquor straight or with water or ice.
The first few days are hard but after a week you will find your bad gut bugs die off and the sugar cravings go away. You will crave bacon and ribs and roasted veggies and baked potatoes. And your diabetes will disappear.
(There is a lot of experimentation in the alternative nutrition world online that demonstrates how potatoes can lower blood sugar tests. You can search. Gut bugs love cooked and cooled potatoes. Potato salad is yummy.)
It's great.
10-15 pounds off my target weight, but I'm a larger feller.
https://www.youtube.com/user/drericberg123 watch his videos ... try to keep carbs below about 20 net gms per day..
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