Encouraging

~ susie

Fascinating, yes?

An extreme eight-week diet of 600 calories a day can reverse Type 2 diabetes in people newly diagnosed with the disease, says a Diabetologia study.

Newcastle University researchers found the low-calorie diet reduced fat levels in the pancreas and liver, which helped insulin production return to normal.

Seven out of 11 people studied were free of diabetes three months later, say findings published in the journal.

Published by susie

5 thoughts on “Encouraging”

  1. Wow! Synchronicity or what? MD informed me just this afternoon that I’m borderline diabetic. Got 3 months to see if I can “turn it around.” That is so weird.

  3. I have to wonder, I know these 11 people (and that’s a really, really small sample on which to base an entire conclusion) were under medical supervision, but extreme crash diets often cause lots more problems than they solve, particularly when it comes to a strain on the heart, etc. I think that’s how John Candy died. I can’t imaging 600 calories a day, I struggle to keep down to 1400 (and don’t always manage), which is considered calorie-restrictive eating (normal intake for women is usually around 2000, depending on weight).

  4. Professor Roy Taylor, director of Newcastle Magnetic Resonance Centre at Newcastle University and lead study author, said he was not suggesting that people should follow the diet.

    “This diet was only used to test the hypothesis that if people lose substantial weight they will lose their diabetes.

    SHIP

    Professor Edwin Gale, a diabetes expert from the University of Bristol, said the study did not reveal anything new.

    “We have known that starvation is a good cure for diabetes. If we introduced rationing tomorrow, then we could get rid of diabetes in this country.

    “If you can catch people with diabetes in the early stages while beta cells are still functioning, then you can delay its onset for years, but you will get it sooner or later because it’s in the system.”

    SNIP

    Dr Iain Frame, director of research at Diabetes UK, which funded the study, said the diet was not an easy fix.

    “Such a drastic diet should only be undertaken under medical supervision. Despite being a very small trial, we look forward to future results particularly to see whether the reversal would remain in the long term.”

    I wish we knew more about the conditions under which these people were restricted to 600 calories a day, what they were fed.

  5. This study may explain why gastric bypass surgery reduces the symptoms of Type 2 diabetes. It also forces the person into an extremely restricted diet, at least for a while. But I’ve had several surgeries, and my experience has been that you don’t want it unless you really, really, really have to have it.

    What would be good is if these or other researchers could come up with a way to do this really restricted diet for a couple of weeks, maybe in an institutional setting, to overcome the insulin resistance, and then to move to a more reasonable low fat, low glycemic index diet that might keep those symptoms from returning.

    Lots of useful information on stuff like this at my health website, Many Years Young. (I can’t post a link because my comment will be rejected if I do. I really wish you’d get that fixed, Susie.)

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