Why are people not doing this and choosing instead to live a life with diabetes?
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3168743/#!po=59.0909
The study used people from over weight to very severely obese.
"stable BMI 25–45 kg/m2"
The study completed with 11 after 4 dropped out.
The follow up was for 10 people:
"One individual was unavailable for retesting, having had surgery for an ovarian cyst (non-malignant)."
"Three participants had recurrence of diabetes as judged by a 2 h post-load plasma glucose >11.1 mmol/l."
So 3 out of 10 participants were not "cured" by this trial.
They were still diabetic.
This does seem to tie in with the buzz number that 80% of T2 diabetics are overweight or obese on diagnosis. Only very general conclusions can be drawn from such a small sample size.
There is a very strong suggestion from this study that if a Newcastle-style diet was applied to all T2 diabetics on diagnosis then a temporary reversal might be achieved in up to 70% of those who were over weight or obese.
Noting the extremely small sample size and the lack of roughly 20% of the T2 diabetic population in the study this suggests (as with most research) that it would be a good idea to try this on a much larger scale.
A pessimistic view on the general T2 population on diagnosis (using 12 people to make the numbers simple):
2 not included in this study
3 not "cured"
7 "cured" (at least in the short term)
That is a 7/12 win and a 5/12 lose.
So this is not a cure all for everyone. It does hold out hope for the majority.
Now the main question posed:
"
Why are people not doing this and choosing instead to live a life with diabetes?"
Let us consider first that all the participants were over weight or worse. To adopt this diet is very hard. To continue afterwards is even harder; you might stick out an eight week low calorie diet but how many can countenance a server calorie restriction (compared to their original eating style) for the rest of their lives?
People eat too much, people drink too much, people still smoke.
Everyone "knows" that it is bad for you but people still do it.
So how, exactly are you going to make several million people change the eating habits of a lifetime and give up what for many is their main pleasure?
You would have to isolate them from all sources of food except those you supply and keep them isolated for long enough to kick their food addiction then hope they won't just go back to their old ways.
In the mean time someone has to pay for this plus the accommodation and policing and someone has to do the work of all these people whilst they are banged up inside.
TL;DR - this information should be widely available and supported by the NHS. Don't expect a massive impact over the next 10 years if it is.
Edit: Oh, nearly forgot. If you think you are cured follow the line the research took. Take a fasting plasma glucose test and if your results are normal then you are effectively non-diabetic again. For the moment. After all, you did develop T2 diabetes, didn't you?
