Fasting-Mimicking Diet Promotes Ngn3-Driven β-Cell Regeneration to Reverse Diabetes

[Living-by-the-beach]

I'm still "Mimick fasting" today with the help of avocado & nuts! I came in with an FBG of 86mg/dl (4.8mmol/l) this morning so a really good number. This number is to be expected if effectively one is barely eating. The true test will be when I migrate back to eating as I usually would, however, in the mean time my feet are enjoying being pain free today. Weight was down a little to 194.4 lbs so off 1lb or so. & My midriff looks flatter TG. I had an easy 10 mile ride yesterday afternoon too. Nothing too strenuous.. If anyone is following I hope this helps..

 

[Hoping4Cure]

Skipped breakfast on my second day of FMD, yesterday was just one avocado all day, and now for lunch I just ate a Campbell's cream of mushroom (regular, non-light), on the basis of the macronutrient ratio which seems pretty decent in terms of keto + low(ish) protein:

480 calories
42g of fat
14g of carbs
6g of protein.

Fat to carbs ratio aren't 1:1 as FMD normally recommends though.

Of course this means that I'm basically done for the day. I think next time I'll eat a smaller can instead, which should have half the calories, so I can eat an avocado too later.

An avocado is about 300 calories so that's a bit higher than I want. I'll eat one for dinner tonight only if I'm too weak.

 

[Living-by-the-beach]

Skipped breakfast on my second day of FMD, yesterday was just one avocado all day, and now for lunch I just ate a Campbell's cream of mushroom (regular, non-light), on the basis of the macronutrient ratio which seems pretty decent in terms of keto + low(ish) protein:

480 calories
42g of fat
14g of carbs
6g of protein.

Fat to carbs ratio aren't 1:1 as FMD normally recommends though.

Of course this means that I'm basically done for the day. I think next time I'll eat a smaller can instead, which should have half the calories, so I can eat an avocado too later.

An avocado is about 300 calories so that's a bit higher than I want. I'll eat one for dinner tonight only if I'm too weak.

@Hoping4Cure

So I've still been fasting-ish. Yesterdays' FGB was 78mg/d and today's 88mg/dl I think today's number went up because I ate some cheese and cold sausage late last night.. Weight is now 192.8lbs. BMI 23.5. For UK followers I've had FBGs of 5.2, 4.8, 4.3 and 4.9 mmol/l for the last 4 days. So since 36hours into my FMD, my FBGs have been non diabetic.

I may try and get to a full week fasting as that would mimic more closely a bariatric surgery. It was originally that a morbidly obese T2DM that within a week, post bariatric surgery their T2DM would resolve itself. I feel good and I am pleased with my progress. Today would be my last day but I'm gonna try to get to Friday.. That would be good.. Its lovely looking at my chart seeing 4 numbers south of 100mg/dl (diabetic threshold).. More is better

LBB

 

[Hoping4Cure]

I think FMD is a much better solution than surgery, definitely safer, cheaper. I generally avoid meats, cheeses, and high-protein food while on FMD and eat 100% vegetarian (not vegan, at least not yet). I enjoy soup and hot meals, so I like to have one bowl of soup per day. Avocados have the sourge of going bad so it's best to pick them up more often than stock up for the week.

It's funny seeing this article about them trying to find drugs to regenerate beta cells:

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/05/170502142353.htm

(same story seen here on d-co-uk), trying to find drugs that induce beta cell replication instead of neogenesis seems less ideal. I've tried a lot of supposed beta cell regen drugs and none of them worked, at least not for extended periods, expept perhaps GLP-1 but there are other explanations as to how that's helped me (by slowing digestion and suppressing glucagon release from the alpha cells). But I think FMD is better.

Like I said before, for impaired beta cell function, it's obvious now that it's better to purge dead / stressed cells and replace them with brand new ones, through beta cell regeneration (neogenesis) rather than replication, which risks being stymied by various factors. Who knows, both things are probably happening, but the big thing that FMD promises is a way for the immune system itself to be rebooted. And if that happens, there's no reason why beta cells shouldn't thrive once again. Remove the cause of the disease and the symptoms should go away. I.e. type 1 is reversible (in theory).

We do know that type 2 is reversible through diet in many cases, but if FMD provides an easier way to achieve it, then I definitely wish you the best of luck. If it catches on because it's only a one time thing (or maybe once every few months), then that's great. Many people simply can't achieve weight loss that easily. I have always found it extremely hard, given that I take insulin shots every day, but cutting my insulin TDD has already reaped dividends for me, especially during FMD.

 

[Living-by-the-beach]

I think FMD is a much better solution than surgery, definitely safer, cheaper. I generally avoid meats, cheeses, and high-protein food while on FMD and eat 100% vegetarian (not vegan, at least not yet). I enjoy soup and hot meals, so I like to have one bowl of soup per day. Avocados have the sourge of going bad so it's best to pick them up more often than stock up for the week.

It's funny seeing this article about them trying to find drugs to regenerate beta cells:

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/05/170502142353.htm

(same story seen here on d-co-uk), trying to find drugs that induce beta cell replication instead of neogenesis seems less ideal. I've tried a lot of supposed beta cell regen drugs and none of them worked, at least not for extended periods, expept perhaps GLP-1 but there are other explanations as to how that's helped me (by slowing digestion and suppressing glucagon release from the alpha cells). But I think FMD is better.

Like I said before, for impaired beta cell function, it's obvious now that it's better to purge dead / stressed cells and replace them with brand new ones, through beta cell regeneration (neogenesis) rather than replication, which risks being stymied by various factors. Who knows, both things are probably happening, but the big thing that FMD promises is a way for the immune system itself to be rebooted. And if that happens, there's no reason why beta cells shouldn't thrive once again. Remove the cause of the disease and the symptoms should go away. I.e. type 1 is reversible (in theory).

We do know that type 2 is reversible through diet in many cases, but if FMD provides an easier way to achieve it, then I definitely wish you the best of luck. If it catches on because it's only a one time thing (or maybe once every few months), then that's great. Many people simply can't achieve weight loss that easily. I have always found it extremely hard, given that I take insulin shots every day, but cutting my insulin TDD has already reaped dividends for me, especially during FMD.

@Hoping4Cure

I know anecdotally that losing weight when you are on insulin is next to impossible. so if you can lower your need for insulin as a T1 then that makes life a bit easier with Longo's premise of killing marginal cells via autophagy and his FMD.
I've mainly been using an avocado / day that I pick up at a local grocery store + bone broths, a few almonds and walnuts and plenty of salt. I've watch most of these two links

that have Dr Phinney explaining ketogenic diets and how important it is too to make sure you get plenty of salt every day, as it washes thru your body quite fast.. & yes for me my midriff has become much flatter (thinner).. Can't wait to test for tomorrow's numbers..

I hope the above helps..

LBB

 

[Hoping4Cure]

Yeah I've read that you have to be careful about not having enough salt when you cut carbs out. The few almonds I snack on here and there are salted, as are the soup packs that I use. I just had an insulin reaction / hypo while taking a nap but that's 100% my fault due to having taken too much insulin for the creamy vegetable soup I made earlier. I'm starting to develop a rule of thumb for FMD, which is: if I need more than few units of insulin, I've eaten too many calories. My goal is to try and get by on only 10-20 units a day, max (including 10 from overnight Lantus). I know my body is producing some small amount of insulin on its own, it's just not enough to sustain my sugars even for 500-700 calories a day, and on a ketogenic diet at that. I plan on getting my c-peptides checked again soon to see if I've made any measurable progress. Honestly most of those markers that people measure are superfluous to me. I know my body is in a good ketosis range, the strips tell me, and my sugars tell me I'm doing pretty well on a much smaller insulin TDD than normally.

In the other news about Miracle Dan (the long distance runner who is off insulin), if they turn out to be true, is still not really a workable solution as a cure for most people. For one, I've nearly died several times in my life due to over-exertion from lengthy, intense exercise, and ultra-marathons is something that even fit people struggle with. Plenty of type 1s do normal marathons but no one else has been cured from that, so it's likely one of those super hard / rare flukes that will remain out of reach for 99.9999% of diabetics to reproduce. So that's why I'm focusing on FMD for now, and gradually working in more exercise (although not during FMD itself, I am pretty weak sometimes, literally on "low power" mode).

 

[Living-by-the-beach]

I've now gotten to 5 days on the FMD. my weight has gone up over night by about 1lb to 194.4lbs and my FBG was 97mg.dl (or 5.4mmol/l non-diabetic number). I'm at a decision point do I continue for another two days or start to re-feed. I've had 5 sequential days of non-diabetic numbers. I may go until tomorrow and then start again on June 1st. In the meantime I may well go completely ketogenic in my diet..

 

[Living-by-the-beach]

Yeah I've read that you have to be careful about not having enough salt when you cut carbs out. The few almonds I snack on here and there are salted, as are the soup packs that I use. I just had an insulin reaction / hypo while taking a nap but that's 100% my fault due to having taken too much insulin for the creamy vegetable soup I made earlier. I'm starting to develop a rule of thumb for FMD, which is: if I need more than few units of insulin, I've eaten too many calories. My goal is to try and get by on only 10-20 units a day, max (including 10 from overnight Lantus). I know my body is producing some small amount of insulin on its own, it's just not enough to sustain my sugars even for 500-700 calories a day, and on a ketogenic diet at that. I plan on getting my c-peptides checked again soon to see if I've made any measurable progress. Honestly most of those markers that people measure are superfluous to me. I know my body is in a good ketosis range, the strips tell me, and my sugars tell me I'm doing pretty well on a much smaller insulin TDD than normally.

In the other news about Miracle Dan (the long distance runner who is off insulin), if they turn out to be true, is still not really a workable solution as a cure for most people. For one, I've nearly died several times in my life due to over-exertion from lengthy, intense exercise, and ultra-marathons is something that even fit people struggle with. Plenty of type 1s do normal marathons but no one else has been cured from that, so it's likely one of those super hard / rare flukes that will remain out of reach for 99.9999% of diabetics to reproduce. So that's why I'm focusing on FMD for now, and gradually working in more exercise (although not during FMD itself, I am pretty weak sometimes, literally on "low power" mode).

@Hoping4Cure

I'm not going to concern myself unduly until I've done my second FMD, The reason being is that the benefits are supposedly cumulative, so to save money I'll pass on immediate lab tests. I'll be looking for a new lower FBG in about a month from now when I should have re-fed and then finished my second FMD. That way I'll be able to see whats going on. As for Ultra marathoners, I think their idea of being fit is in all intents and purposes too extreme. I'll agree T1 may well have a tougher condition to fix than T2's. I had a Yellow fin tuna salad for lunch today along with avocado oil in my self made dressing.. I had chopped walnuts and almonds + the tuna and a lettuce mix.. It tasted good. I've got to get more into the idea of Ketogenic diets..

LBB

 

[Hoping4Cure]

Feeling great, nearly done my 3rd FMD in a row. One more day, then pizza time Only a single cheat meal this time. Maybe some dessert

FMD certainly saves a ton of money and time too. Falling asleep can be a pain. I had two reactions yesterday, one 2.7 and one 3.4. Corrected both with a small cup of OJ and a handful of almonds.

 

[Living-by-the-beach]

Feeling great, nearly done my 3rd FMD in a row. One more day, then pizza time Only a single cheat meal this time. Maybe some dessert

FMD certainly saves a ton of money and time too. Falling asleep can be a pain. I had two reactions yesterday, one 2.7 and one 3.4. Corrected both with a small cup of OJ and a handful of almonds.

@Hoping4Cure

How much time are you putting in between FMDs?

 

[Hoping4Cure]

One week on, one week off. Yeah, I'm impatient to kick-start my pancreas. But after this time I have some other life stuff happening, so it'll likely not be for another month before I do this again. Maybe mid-june. Then who knows.

 

[Living-by-the-beach]

One week on, one week off. Yeah, I'm impatient to kick-start my pancreas. But after this time I have some other life stuff happening, so it'll likely not be for another month before I do this again. Maybe mid-june. Then who knows.

@Hoping4Cure

Week on week off maybe too much, I know I 'm committed to fixing myself too, but we need to pace ourselves for a marathon. I finished FMD yesterday and ate some low GI chili last night. Alas I'm back at 111mg/dl (or 6.2 mmol/l ). My weight went up by 1lb too. I'm going to try and implement more Ketogenic principles into my diet but I'll leave it three weeks at least before I have another crack at FMD.One thing that this FMD has taught me is that Ketogenic diet is very powerful nonetheless.

I wonder how @Mr Whippy has been getting on too?? .

 

[Hoping4Cure]

Best pizza ever! Starving really makes food taste great. Although, I needed more insulin tonight than I took literally the entire week. No joke. When I do feel the need for pizza, it's usually cauliflower-based dough for low-carbness, although that is really hard to digest (if you know what I mean), but it's hard to cook when all you've eaten in the past 24 hours is a handful of nuts and a cup of coffee so we just ordered. I had some pretty bad headaches during fasting this past day too. Probably not enough salt but the veggy soup mixes I ate were high in sodium so I thought I'd be OK.

One thing on FMD is I tend to sleep a lot, but at night it's hard to fall asleep initially when you're hungry. Just my experience, it's probably different for others. I really need to be super careful with insulin doses, that crashed me a couple times this week and fixing it via OJ over-compensated so I roller-coastered a bit. It's my fault of course but it's still an adjustment to get used to this. The hypo stick is a stern school-mistress but one does learn to behave quickly.

 

[Benjamin Richardson]

I had some pretty bad headaches during fasting this past day too. Probably not enough salt but the veggy soup mixes I ate were high in sodium so I thought I'd be OK.

One thing on FMD is I tend to sleep a lot, but at night it's hard to fall asleep initially when you're hungry.

Are you also supplementing potassium and magnesium? One of my 'mods' for further cycles of FMD, following my first, is to supplement with salt, potassium and magnesium with the hope that this will reduce the headache symptoms I experienced on my first cycle.

I also slept *longer* than my personal norm during my first FMD cycle. I did not have any struggle to fall asleep, perhaps partly because I also felt far more tired compared to non-FMD days.

 

[Hoping4Cure]

No I'm not taking potassium nor magnesium, I'll add them to my list for next time. Thanks.

 

[VictorVillalobos]

Hopes die last! Five days of fasting seems a reasonable price to pay for a new set of beta cells. This study looks to good too be true.
I've tried to read about different studies re diabetes management or reversability. Sadly, the ones I came across are small in size, time span, funding etc. I don't see why different schools, universities, labs, whatever, join together in a comprehensive research and produce some reliable data. I guess diabetes, just like anything else, is a huge business. Just consider the annual expenses for a diabetic if he/she wanted to use a CGM and a pump.

Well, that was also my guess. Therefore I took the initiative of starting something similar. Now is in the works ! Hope to give you an update soon.

 

[VictorVillalobos]

Have not read very much on this, but this paragraph describing the systemic effect of metformin from the first article I come across seems surprisingly similar to fasting...
Metformin in cancer prevention and therapy
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4200668/


Also in Valter Longo's interview, there was a discussion on Metformin @1:00:00.

Does Metformin increase Autophagy...pretty sure it does.
His response 'Will I take metformin...absolutely not,'

http://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/fasting-mimicking-diet-promotes-ngn3-driven-β-cell-regeneration-to-reverse-diabetes.116847/#post-1394601

Hi kokhongw!
Where do I find that interview with Longo?

 

[bulkbiker]

Hi kokhongw!
Where do I find that interview with Longo?

It's post number 9 on the first page of this thread

 

[Hoping4Cure]

In the fasting section of this forum, there's a link to a youtube video.

 

[kokhongw]

Hi kokhongw!
Where do I find that interview with Longo?