The personal background to this:
I've lost a lot of weight over the last few months, fairly rapidly. Based on the various "Newcastle Studies" I'm kind of hoping that at some point some beta cells that weren't functioning as beta cells because of fat in them, will come back online, and my metabolism will get markedly better.
This doesn't seem to have happened yet in tests I've done when I'm sitting still and just letting carbs do their thing: no noticeable change from when I started losing fat.
But one thing I *had* noticed in recent weeks is that the effect of exercising straight after eating carbs seemed to be getting more pronounced. I could eat a fair old load of carbs, I'm going to say about 100g, and an hour of fast walking, including some small but steep ups and downs with a heavy rucksack, and my 2 hour postprandial readings were literally in the non-diabetic range.
But after recently spending a week overdoing the carbs and calories, and not always exercising straight after the big carb loads, I seem to have lost my new superpower. Crucially during that period, my average blood sugar was high, all day and night, in spite of the spikes being dealt with more quickly when exercising.
I've also noticed some people report that, for example, they have been on a rapid weight loss diet, "Newcastle Style", then had a lapse over Christmas, and found it had a lasting negative effect.
I've wondered something in the past, based on two bits of science, and am now wondering if I'm experiencing it...
The latest research "From Newcastle", in a nutshell, is suggesting that "The", or at least "A Big Part Of" the explanation of what Type 2 is, is that it's beta cells no longer functioning as beta cells because they have fat in them. If someone with Type 2 loses enough overall fat, that will give them a chance of removing fat from their pancreas, and some of the beta cells start working again.
Other studies, on beta cells outside of the body, or transplanted into mice for example, have shown that if you expose them to high glucose levels for long enough, they die. And the level's aren't that high: we're talking about 7 to 8 mmol/l.
So I've had this concern for a long time:
Presumably, when rapidly losing weight, using the "Newcastle Diet" or similar, your beta cells don't suddenly all start functioning at once. And also, those that are not functioning due to fat, may in effect be protected from the toxic effect of glucose.
So you lose weight, some cells come online. Lose more weight, more come online. Keep going, and if you're lucky, you end up with a metabolism that works rather well.
But what if you have a "lapse", like I did, and suddenly spend days with elevated blood sugar levels. You may have a few newly-functioning beta cells which are now able to produce insulin, but there aren't enough of them to lower your blood glucose to safe levels. So the poor newly-awakened ones, now also exposed to glucose, sit in this hostile environment for a long time and they die.
Could it be that, if one is going to try to lose weight for this purpose, you really do need to commit, and stick it out, and be very careful never to have prolonged periods of elevated blood sugars, until there are enough beta cells functioning to quickly deal with a big intake of carbs?
I.e. weight loss could get great results, but your beta cells are also very vulnerable during that process?
I've lost a lot of weight over the last few months, fairly rapidly. Based on the various "Newcastle Studies" I'm kind of hoping that at some point some beta cells that weren't functioning as beta cells because of fat in them, will come back online, and my metabolism will get markedly better.
This doesn't seem to have happened yet in tests I've done when I'm sitting still and just letting carbs do their thing: no noticeable change from when I started losing fat.
But one thing I *had* noticed in recent weeks is that the effect of exercising straight after eating carbs seemed to be getting more pronounced. I could eat a fair old load of carbs, I'm going to say about 100g, and an hour of fast walking, including some small but steep ups and downs with a heavy rucksack, and my 2 hour postprandial readings were literally in the non-diabetic range.
But after recently spending a week overdoing the carbs and calories, and not always exercising straight after the big carb loads, I seem to have lost my new superpower. Crucially during that period, my average blood sugar was high, all day and night, in spite of the spikes being dealt with more quickly when exercising.
I've also noticed some people report that, for example, they have been on a rapid weight loss diet, "Newcastle Style", then had a lapse over Christmas, and found it had a lasting negative effect.
I've wondered something in the past, based on two bits of science, and am now wondering if I'm experiencing it...
The latest research "From Newcastle", in a nutshell, is suggesting that "The", or at least "A Big Part Of" the explanation of what Type 2 is, is that it's beta cells no longer functioning as beta cells because they have fat in them. If someone with Type 2 loses enough overall fat, that will give them a chance of removing fat from their pancreas, and some of the beta cells start working again.
Other studies, on beta cells outside of the body, or transplanted into mice for example, have shown that if you expose them to high glucose levels for long enough, they die. And the level's aren't that high: we're talking about 7 to 8 mmol/l.
So I've had this concern for a long time:
Presumably, when rapidly losing weight, using the "Newcastle Diet" or similar, your beta cells don't suddenly all start functioning at once. And also, those that are not functioning due to fat, may in effect be protected from the toxic effect of glucose.
So you lose weight, some cells come online. Lose more weight, more come online. Keep going, and if you're lucky, you end up with a metabolism that works rather well.
But what if you have a "lapse", like I did, and suddenly spend days with elevated blood sugar levels. You may have a few newly-functioning beta cells which are now able to produce insulin, but there aren't enough of them to lower your blood glucose to safe levels. So the poor newly-awakened ones, now also exposed to glucose, sit in this hostile environment for a long time and they die.
Could it be that, if one is going to try to lose weight for this purpose, you really do need to commit, and stick it out, and be very careful never to have prolonged periods of elevated blood sugars, until there are enough beta cells functioning to quickly deal with a big intake of carbs?
I.e. weight loss could get great results, but your beta cells are also very vulnerable during that process?