I agree with both sheepie and ickihun, to some extent.
When I was first diagnosed, some years back, I had already been suffering from excessive thirst, weight gain, night sweats and other signs for some time, but the doc refused at first to actually test me as I was considered too young at the time...
When I finally got diagnosed, I began to read some very good articles (cannot remember where they were now as it was some time ago) about how newly diagnosed T2s could absolutely benefit from insulin as it gives their pancreas a chance to recover and basically not die off, there were of course other benefits associated with a short term treatment plan of this nature. I discussed the matter with my doc and he point blank refused, basically said, no way buddy, on yer bike, which of course annoyed me, because it made perfect sense to me, how dare they refuse to listen to sense.
Then, I started to learn about things like nutritional science, dieting, and more specifically, the 'diet' mind and mentality, and how people tend to not try so hard as they claim they are/have been, for example, you hear the 'I have tried every diet, nothing works for me...' line, and I learned all about why 'diets' fail, and why sometimes medicines appear to fail too.
As I learned more it became much clearer to me, at least in part, why they do not prescribe such a treatment path to folks at the outset, because in truth, at that point, most people would actually just stop trying, don't get me wrong, some folks would do well and most folks would be very sincere about it all, and at the outset would likely do very well, for a few weeks at least, but most would fall away and stop trying as their will and desire wanes, in the exact same way people fail on 'diets', and ultimately they would see none of the benefit attributed to a short term prescription of insulin and would then be on insulin far earlier, and at much greater cost to the health services.
I know this is not something we like to hear and is not something many folks would like to accept, and I even resented and resisted such thoughts and statements myself until I started taking courses on such subjects, for example, I used to baulk at the idea that the real reason I was obese was because I was plain old fashioned greedy. I had a plethora of reasons and excuses as to why it was not down to me. Now don't get me wrong, I am not saying the condition, treatments, medicines and so forth have no effect on this, but that I also knew I should not have been eating the extra big mac, or that choccie bar, but did it anyway after all, why bother, it was not my fault was it.
When I first went on insulin I gained almost 3 stone to an already 19st 7lbs, and I decided I needed to stop blaming stuff, stop blaming the nurse and doc for not understanding my plight, stop blaming my medications, stop blaming the diet, and anything else I could blame and decided I needed to accept the problem was a simple one, I was eating too much. So that's when I decided to embark on a learning curve of nutritional science and learn about foods, portion control, how food works and affects the body, how to understand the findings brought to light by nutritional studies, learned about the numerous myths and some downright lies with regards to food and health too.
With regard to the OPs question, there is some evidence to support such a practice, in clinical scenarios, just as for example, everyone, and I mean everyone, who was ever subjected to a calorie controlled/restricted diet in numerous studies, under controlled, clinical conditions, lost weight, however, there is swathe and raft of evidence that shows once those in-patients, became out-patients, the diets fail, they regain their weight.
Now this is despite them reporting that they were consuming the same number of calories and not over eating, but there is clear and strong evidence that people, either consciously or unconsciously, under report their consumption, the same happens with alcoholics too for example, and they begin to blame the 'diet' and resent the medical advice and then go looking for easy option to this complex issue.
When this cannot be found, of course, they turn to more and more exotic regimes and use these as proof that the science they have been advised to follow does not work, such as for example, the war on fats, the war on meat, the war on carbs, the war on whatever meets their criteria, and of course, for the most part, this is just not true. I know, have done all of these things myself, done everything from fasting to Atkins, and a few other mad diets too over the years.
I strongly suspect, this is exactly what would happen to many newly diagnosed T2s, they would simply stop trying and use the insulin as their crux, I mean, it is easy to stick another 10-16 units of Novo-Rapid in to cover that Big Mac I just ate rather than actually try to control myself a bit better, and I know this too, because I once did it regularly.
I have now lost the 3 stones because I realised, the common factor in all of this, was me, so I decided I needed to change my mindset so that I could change my lifestyle. I have a long way to go still but I do much better these days than I used to and have learned a huge amount along the way. I take less insulin than I did, due to eating better mainly, and I take less metformin too, and some days take no insulin at all if I have been particularly good with my foods, though my real issue, and always has been, I sometimes have very agressive and sometimes severe, sleep/nocturnal hypos/dawn phenomenon, and often wake up sweating, cold and shaky, and on rebound my blood can go from 4/5.x mmol to 13.x in the space of 4-6 hours, despite having eaten nothing for 8-12 hours, so it would appear at least my liver is working well.
My advice is always this, educate yourself whenever you can, read from conversant and reputable sources, do not just take it a gospel that Mr X knows his stuff because he says so, cross reference it, and think about the motives of people, you will often the 'experts' who scream the loudest and often by deriding the 'other' evidence, and somehow manage to drown out the voice of reason, usually have book or video to sell you or are looking to sell tickets to their next feel good show/venue and often you find they have no credentials in the subject matter at all and the evidence and information provided by the scientists, is generally free and available for you to read and take in.
Best wishes to all.
