"Cure" for Type 2 Diabetes?

by **KitKat** on Mon 27 Jun 2011, 1:40 am

Where's John when you need him? I wonder how authentic and effective this Study is.

http://www.latimes.com/health/boostershots/la-heb-diabetes-extreme-diet-06252011,0,7790769.story

British researchers have developed what they say is a "cure" for Type 2 diabetes, the most common form of the disease. And all you have to do is starve yourself for eight weeks.

Roy Taylor, head of the magnetic resonance imaging unit at Newcastle University in Britain, and his colleagues studied 11 patients who had developed diabetes later in life and who had had it for several years. The patients averaged 220 pounds at the beginning of the study. Each was put on a 600-calorie-per-day diet that included a special diet drink and non-starchy vegetables, such as broccoli, asparagus and cabbage. The diet was followed for eight weeks.

Taylor reported Saturday at a San Diego meeting of the American Diabetes Assn. and in the journal Diabetologia that, after one week on the diet, each of the patients' fasting blood sugar, taken before breakfast, had returned to normal. At the end of the eight weeks, the patients had lost an average of 33 pounds and had no signs of diabetes. Three months after returning to a normal diet, seven of them remained free of the disease. Average weight gain in that three months was 6.5 pounds.

Taylor believes he has an explanation for the results. At the beginning of the study, MRI scans of the patients' pancreases showed that they held an elevated level of fat, 8% compared with the normal 6%. That extra fat impairs the organ's ability to produce insulin, he speculated. At the end of the study, fat levels in the pancreas were down to normal in each patient.

"We believe that this shows that Type 2 diabetes is all about energy balance in the body," Taylor said in a statement. "If you are eating more [calories] than you burn, then the excess is stored in the liver and pancreas as fat, which can lead to Type 2 diabetes in some people. What we need to examine further is why some people are more susceptible to developing diabetes than others."

He added that, "We used the 600-calorie diet to test a hypothesis. What I can tell you definitively is that if people lose substantial weight by normal means, they will lose their diabetes."

An estimated 25 million Americans have Type 2 diabetes, in which the body does not respond properly to insulin produced by the pancreas. Experts recommend that patients consult with a doctor before attempting such an extreme diet.

by **Feather** on Mon 27 Jun 2011, 8:46 am

As my mother used to say, sometimes the cure is worse than the complaint!! Shocked

by **Stardust** on Mon 27 Jun 2011, 11:50 am

It sounds good to me. It may be a "starvation diet, but not a high price to pay for being free of Type 2 diabetes. After 8 weeks (not so long is it?) they have a chance of being cured. Worth a couple of months on a minimum calorie intake if you ask me.

by **Umberto Cocopop** on Tue 08 Nov 2011, 4:43 pm

Just spotted this!

I wouldn't say that this is a 'cure' for typeII diabetes - it's just a way of controlling it. It's already well known that excess weight exacerbates typeII diabetes.

If your weight drops and your diet is controlled then there's no need for any medication as this will keep blood sugar levels in the normal range - but I suspect that if anyone of these people took a glucose tolerance test, they'd still fail it.

by **Aussiepom** on Mon 28 Nov 2011, 11:07 am

Diabetes is now becoming a very serious disease.
More so that years ago.
Both my grandson and husband were diagnosed with it.
My husband ended up having half his leg off,my grandson passed away,not through the Diabetes but various other complaints which led to it.
Not nice at all.

by **KitKat** on Thu 01 Dec 2011, 11:44 pm

Aussiepom wrote:Diabetes is now becoming a very serious disease.
More so that years ago.

I wouldn't say that, Aussiepom. It could be just that we're hearing more about it nowadays and more people are being diagnosed perhaps than may have been in days gone by. Type 2 diabetes is more common than you might think, and lots of people can have it without even knowing. As UC says, it can be controlled through diet and exercise. My friend was diagnosed about 5 years ago. She was very much overweight at the time and before any kind of treatment could be administered she had to go on a special diet to get down to a certain weight first. She's absolutely fine with it now. She was warned from diagnosis that if not kept under regular control it could lead to Type 1, so that's a kind of incentive for her.

Another friend of mine has the type that needs regular insulin. She has to inject so many times a day and has done ever since she was 12. She can't eat sweets and has quite a restricted diet but it doesn't bother her as it's a regime she has got used to ever since that age.

I also had an uncle who had long-term diabetes - skinny as a rake he was. He was in hospital in Ireland, due to have an op to have his leg removed, but he passed away in the hospital the day before the op.

"Cure" for Type 2 Diabetes?

"Cure" for Type 2 Diabetes?

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