In remission, cured? - Not so sure

walnut_face

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Can't find this as having been posted before. This is an article by Rowan Hillson, National Clinical Director for Diabetes, England 2008–2013

"If we are ill we want to be cured. We want our illness to vanish completely and never return. Is this possible with diabetes? Patients and the media seem to think so. I am not so sure."

Full article http://www.practicaldiabetes.com/article/diabetes_in_remission/

I think this is a well balanced piece, that while not knocking the efforts of sufferers, cautions being over optimistic about future outcomes
 
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6,107
Type of diabetes
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It's not that people can't be cured, it's more about people applying a cure and then falling back into old habits suggesting that they were not cured but just well controlled. What seems to be true is that any type 2 that does not eat a lot of carbs lowers their blood sugar average and are able to get a lower Hba1c. Eating a lot of carbs does the other thing.

Apart from that I do not hear that anyone has cured their illness completely.
 
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Bluetit1802

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Can't find this as having been posted before. This is an article by Rowan Hillson, National Clinical Director for Diabetes, England 2008–2013

"If we are ill we want to be cured. We want our illness to vanish completely and never return. Is this possible with diabetes? Patients and the media seem to think so. I am not so sure."

Full article http://www.practicaldiabetes.com/article/diabetes_in_remission/

I think this is a well balanced piece, that while not knocking the efforts of sufferers, cautions being over optimistic about future outcomes

Thanks for posting this very interesting article.
 

BrianTheElder

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Can't find this as having been posted before. This is an article by Rowan Hillson, National Clinical Director for Diabetes, England 2008–2013

"If we are ill we want to be cured. We want our illness to vanish completely and never return. Is this possible with diabetes? Patients and the media seem to think so. I am not so sure."

Full article http://www.practicaldiabetes.com/article/diabetes_in_remission/

I think this is a well balanced piece, that while not knocking the efforts of sufferers, cautions being over optimistic about future outcomes
I don't think I am cured or in remission. I am a Type 2 diabetic with strict dietary control. That control runs my life (which is OK), but without it I would suffer the symptoms of my condition. If I did not control my diet, all the symptoms would reappear. Anything else is wishful thinking.
 

kokhongw

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2,394
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I reversed my Type 2
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I think this is a well balanced piece, that while not knocking the efforts of sufferers, cautions being over optimistic about future outcomes

Given her lack of experience with T2D in remission...and ADA's rather dismal record.

I would take my chances with maintaining normoglycemia/insulin sans medication for as long as I can. I can then say to myself I have done my utmost in keeping T2D complications at bay and go down with no regrets.
 
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kumera

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Messages
153
Type of diabetes
Prediabetes
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Diet only
Can't find this as having been posted before. This is an article by Rowan Hillson, National Clinical Director for Diabetes, England 2008–2013

"If we are ill we want to be cured. We want our illness to vanish completely and never return. Is this possible with diabetes? Patients and the media seem to think so. I am not so sure."

Full article http://www.practicaldiabetes.com/article/diabetes_in_remission/

I think this is a well balanced piece, that while not knocking the efforts of sufferers, cautions being over optimistic about future outcomes
Thanks for sharing. I'm also very skeptical if it's actually possible to completely reverse diabetes or if it's more like alcoholism. I can keep the symptoms at bay by not eating carbs and sugar, but will I always be a prediabetic?? That said, I have an open mind and if beta-cell function can be normalized, why not have a go at it :)

Weight loss
Diet and lifestyle interventions


A 600kcal diet in 11 patients with type 2 diabetes normalised beta-cell function and liver insulin sensitivity within one week. By eight weeks their first-phase insulin response was the same as that of non-diabetic controls.

In the Look AHEAD study, 3.5% (95% CI 2.7–4.3%) of patients who received intensive lifestyle weight-loss intervention had continuous, sustained remission for at least four years.
 
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douglas99

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"While prolonged normoglycaemia may reduce the risk of new complications and can improve existing ones, this is not always so. New microvascular disease may appear. Existing complications may worsen."

And if there aren't any?
And if I'm normoglycaemic?

Easy to write if's and but's and may's.
I wonder if Dr Rowan Hillson is diabetic, and has lived with the condition?
 

walnut_face

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1,748
Type of diabetes
Type 2
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The honourable members of the press dont write ifs and buts, it doesnt sell copy. They peddle sensationalist cures, or let us believe that T2D's are guilty of 2 of the deadly sins. At least she isn't writing off a fix, just playing down expectation. On a personal note I have lost the weight, moved more, cut the cals and carbs etc, but for me no fix, for others it works. I am happy that I didnt set myself up for a fall
 

douglas99

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4,572
Type of diabetes
I reversed my Type 2
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Other
The honourable members of the press dont write ifs and buts, it doesnt sell copy. They peddle sensationalist cures, or let us believe that T2D's are guilty of 2 of the deadly sins. At least she isn't writing off a fix, just playing down expectation. On a personal note I have lost the weight, moved more, cut the cals and carbs etc, but for me no fix, for others it works. I am happy that I didnt set myself up for a fall

Ah, but I was, I did, I tried, I succeeded.
We're all different huh?
 
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walnut_face

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1,748
Type of diabetes
Type 2
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Ah, but I was, I did, I tried, I succeeded.
We're all different huh?
Exactly! There are many who post here that they did this and that, and they are cured - so it must work for everyone. You are not one of those :)
 
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Freema

Expert
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7,346
Type of diabetes
Type 2
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Diet only
It could be there is a permanent programming fault in the human body when one has one time become really diabetic.. what is true is that a sure cure has not been found..'

I am still puzzled with those doctors experimenting on diabetic dogs , where they seem to cure their diabetes by cutting a nerve between kidney and stomach in the dogs... I haven´t been able to find this experiment again in the web lately, why I don´t know...
maybe this is it : http://www.theevolvingplanet.com/cutting-kidney-nerves-reverses-diabetes-sign/

but it made me think about if there is something gone wrong in signaling hormons somewhere in the body that seem hard or ompossible to cure just by lifestyle change and the medications available till now.. maybe we even have genetic changes in our body that also can´t be reversed... who actually knows that ?

I still thing that someday in the future a true cure will be found, but it is both a question of intelligence, scientific effort and luck... so when this will happen is hard to say, well forgot also a question of investment, money and prioritizing