Reverse type 2 after 30yrs, is it possible??

[rossbz]

Hi all, is it possible to reverse type 2 after having it for 30yrs, lots of posts on socials says yiu can, but i think they are scams with money making behind it.

 

[TheSecretCarbAddict]

Depends on how you define 'reverse'. I've been diagnosed with T2 since 2008, am on maximum dose of multiple oral medicines, and following my last HbA1c results was told I probably should consider insulin therapy. Over the last 6 weeks, I've been following a very low carb diet and am at a point where I have agreed with my GP to completely discontinue one of the medicines I've been taking. Does it mean that I'm cured? No, just that certain lifestyle changes that I'm making and will need to continue to stick to allow me to reduce and hopefully at some point move away from most / all my medicine. Have I paid anyone to start making these changes? No, I'm just using the wealth of information available online on forums like this and the collective experience of its members. Am I taking information at its face value? No, I experiment, try different ideas, and stick to what works for me and my body.

 

[jpscloud]

Yes it really depends on your personal physiology too, if the aim is to be free of medications it will be possible for some people and maybe not for others.

If you want to improve your health and quality of life, I think it's never too late but as you have found, you need to get information from the right source.

Coming here to the forums was a good move, the information and support available here is magical.

 

[ianf0ster]

There are several members who have largely reversed their T2 Diabetes after several years. Though I don't know of anybody who left it for as long as you before attempting it.

There are some people on social media who can help, but the ones in the UK tend to give free factsheets (Dr David Unwin @LowcarbGP on Twitter) or a free App (the Freshwell GP Surgery). Most people really don't need much more than advice and help from the members of either this forum or the Diabetes.org.uk forum.

I have been in full medicine free remission for nearly 4 yrs - my Blood Glucose test results are normal - not even pre-diabetic.

Here is a link to the blog post by a member which set me on the right path: https://josekalsbeek.blogspot.com/2019/11/the-nutritional-thingy.html

 

[JoKalsbeek]

Hi all, is it possible to reverse type 2 after having it for 30yrs, lots of posts on socials says yiu can, but i think they are scams with money making behind it.

Ah, the interwebs are rife with scams... Magic bullets, snake oil etc. It's good to be skeptical, and it's even better to just throw questions out there to people who've tackled their own diabetes and have nothing personally to gain from whatever answers they give you. The link @ianf0ster shared is mine, and it doesn't generate any income whatsoever. Just wrote it because when I was first diagnosed, I was scared out of my mind, information went in one ear and out the other due to the trauma of diagnosis, and there was no real consensus on whether I was about to keel over or actually be able to tackle this and live to be a ripe old age, or anything in between. I needed something that would be easy to digest, and after reading a bunch of books, like Dr. Jason Fung's The Diabetes Code, and watching loads of YouTube vids, this is what I came up with, to help people in a similar situation to mine. I didn't expect a veteran like yourself to end up possibly reading it, though.

Can it be done? No idea. It might. You've been diabetic for a very long time though, and I don't know what state your pancreas is in. Some get exhausted after years of things like gliclazide, and don't have the output they used to, for instance. Who knows how bad your insulin resistance/sensitivity is and whatnot. But your pancreas might recover a little when you give it a break, and a low carb diet might improve your sensitivity. That's a lot of might's, but just the chance it worth it, right?

No harm in trying a low carb diet, provided you keep an eye on your blood sugars. Your profile says you're on oral tablets, but those either can make you go hypo (like gliclazide), or they don't (like metformin), so that doesn't tell us much either, so.... If you are on pills that make your pancreas forcibly pump out more insulin, do be careful of hypo's, and take a reduction in carbs slow. The risk of hypo's is very real, and they're no walk in the park, so... Slow and steady wins the race. I lowered my carb intake, then halved it, then halved it again, until I ended up basically following a ketogenic diet (20 grams of carbs a day or less, thereabouts), and I'd advise you to do the same at this point in time. Adjust medication as you go, with your doc/nurse's aid. And test, test, test, to see what effect any changes you make are having. (And no, I don't have stock in test strip manufacturers, haha!).

Test before a meal and 2 hours after the first bite. If your numbers rise no more -and preferably less than- 2.0 mmol/l, your body's coping what with you put in there, and your over all numbers should be coming down. And it's as simple as just cutting carbs. Just please, again, stock up on teststrips before you start any of this, because we don't know what you're on and you could faceplant with a hypo, and none of us want that. Also, to avoid something called carb-flu, you might want to get some bone broth or electrolyte supplements before you start. When you reduce carbs you lose a lot of water-weight, and when you start peeing all that out, you lose salts and such as well. Which can make you feel headachy, your joints ache and whatnot, until your body stabilises. And, I don't know whether you're on any blood pressure lowering medication, but if you were to combine that with no longer eating salty foods like bread and spuds, your blood pressure might drop a tad low. Again, adjust meds as needed, or add in a smidge more salt, and take signals from your body seriously.

Good luck!
Jo

 

[KennyA]

As others have said, it depends on your definition of "reverse". That could mean anything from lowering your blood glucose a little to returning your BG to levels around 38ish plus reducing or removing symptoms.

In my case I was undiagnosed for about ten years, with a large range of diabetic symptoms, but no-one would diagnose me because my "blood sugar wasn't high enough". I was told firmly I wasn't diabetic. Of course, eventually it was high enough, but with an earlier diagnosis (or had I been less trusting of the medical opinion) I could have avoided ten years of pain and discomfort. Once started on a low-carb routine my BG dropped to normal levels between January and April 2020 and has stayed there since - that's four years this month. Symptoms gone and since 2020 I've lost more than 30kg.

I think my experience (although my BG was never that high) shows that you can do something about T2 after ten years untreated. Why don't you give it a go?

And on the scams - yes, I take zero notice of anything about T2 diabetes on social media. Anyone who wants to sell you a "blood glucose lowering" item is almost certainly a scammer. These forums have tons of personal experience - you'll find very quickly that one size does not fit all.

 

[TheSecretCarbAddict]

@JoKalsbeek - thanks for flagging up Fung's The Diabetes Code. I think I might have seen it mentioned elsewhere on the forum. Sounded familiar and turns out it has been sitting in my Audible library for about a couple of years. I just never got to it. Up to Chapter 6 while running errands and taking my dog for a walk earlier today. The book really resonates and is putting into words a lot of my personal intuition. Definitely would recommend.

 

[jpscloud]

@JoKalsbeek - thanks for flagging up Fung's The Diabetes Code. I think I might have seen it mentioned elsewhere on the forum. Sounded familiar and turns out it has been sitting in my Audible library for about a couple of years. I just never got to it. Up to Chapter 6 while running errands and taking my dog for a walk earlier today. The book really resonates and is putting into words a lot of my personal intuition. Definitely would recommend.

The Obesity Code is very good too, some overlap but I really didn't mind that because of the motivating power of his writing.