It IS possible to reverse diabetes: this works even for people who have had diabetes for 10 years before changing their diets, say researchers from Newcastle University.
Lead researcher Roy Taylor [1] of Newcastle University showed in an earlier study that diabetes could be reversed with a low-calorie diet, but the study was over a short period and it was not clear if the condition would return.
In his new research, Prof Taylor recruited 30 people how have had diabetes from 8 to 23 years. They were put on the same low-calorie diet (maximum 700 calories a day). They lost an average of 14 kilograms (nearly 2 stone), over eight weeks. None regained weight in the following 6 months.
12 of the 30 who had diabetes for less than 10 years successfully reversed the condition, and were still free of the problem six months later. During that six-month period, another participant also reversed his diabetes.
In spite of losing weight, participants were still obese or at least overweight. Yet, Prof Taylor conjectured that they had lost enough weight to remove fat from their pancreas, which allows for normal insulin production to resume.
So it is not simply being a question of being obese, says Prof Taylor. “This supports our theory of a personal fat threshold. If a person gains more weight than they personally can tolerate, then diabetes is triggered, but if they then lose that amount of weight, then they go back to normal”.
The fact that 70% of obese people do not have diabetes seems to support his theory.
It may also somehow explain the strange finding last year that “overweight diabetics are 13 per cent less likely to die prematurely than those of a normal weight or those who are obese” [2]. How? Well… my guess would be that:
* This “counter-intuitive” result was obtained because BMI was used as a measure of “overweight”. This would place a really muscular bodybuilder (with very low body fat %) in the overweight or obese category! This is obviously not correct.
* On the other hand, the study did not seem to use a measure of deep abdominal fat (including fat around pancreas) such as direct measurements (scans) or even indirect measurement, such as waist circumference.
* It is likely that, had they used a measure of deep abdominal fat quantity, even just waist measurement, the results would have been very different.
The great news is that diabetes need not be a life sentence. It IS possible to reverse the condition. Start acting now!!!
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References
[1] http://www.ncl.ac.uk/press/news/2016/03/profroytaylordiabetesresearch/
[2] http://www.nhs.uk/news/2015/05May/Pages/Overweight-diabetics-live-longer-than-slimmer-diabetics.aspx
Tags: diabetes, pancreas, personal fat threshold, weight loss, waist measurement, deep abdominal fat,