Reverse Type 2 Diabetes with a LCHF diet. Is this a myth?

Little Bird

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Pretty much. To be more precise, my original question didn't include a reference to fat loss from the pancreas/liver - I only included that because you (as OP) had brought it up and I was willing to go along with the assumption that improvements in post-prandial glucose were likely to occur via that mechanism.


Well, Prof Taylor suggests that weight-loss by any means [presumably including LCHF] may result in diabetes 'reversal'. Also, I'm fairly sure that some people on this forum have reported that after weight-loss through LCHF they have had normal post-meal blood glucose on the occasions when they have strayed from low carb. Whether anyone with diabetes who follows LCHF for a period will then get normal post-prandial blood glucose after a non-low card meal is another matter. The study quoted by @Brunneria earlier in this thread was interesting as that did seem to be the case for some people with metabolic syndrome ( a risk factor for diabetes).
from Prof Taylor's research I too understood that reversal was a result of decrease in liver and pancreatic fat, and that the means of fat removal was irrelevant as long as it occurred rapidly. Because of this when I began reading about other people's experiences I had expected to see lots of people saying they had reversed their diabetes with LCHF so that they were less adversely affected by carb. I was then puzzled to see that a lot of people said they still were unable to eat much carbs and needed to stick to LCHF indefinitely. Of course that doesn't mean there aren't any people who have reversed to be able to tolerate more carbs.
I read the article posted by Brunneria and it was very interesting indeed.
 

Little Bird

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On occasions when I have had the odd non low carb meal my BGs have stayed within non diabetic ranges.

However I have always thought that this was because my liver is no longer fatty and had therefore helped out by taking in the excess glucose....the opposite of the liver helping out with liver dump when extra glucose is needed on waking. That's why I haven't replied before because I wouldn't like to push my luck and continually eat carby meals. Logic tells me the liver would become fatty again if I ate high carb meals regularly or indeed if I consumed diet drinks again.
Based on everything I have read this is the kind of experience I expected to read more about but didn't as much as I had thought I would. Anyway much more importantly thank you for sharing your experience zand especially if you felt a bit reluctant to. I hope you are always able to maintain your healthy balance, it's great to hear such a positive testimonial. You offer hope and as someone else here said that's important
 

Redshank

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Prediabetes
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In the Direct study, 36 % of participants were in remission after 2 years so it doesn’t work for all.
The original study did not look at people who were not overweight, but many assumptions are made extrapolating to this group. I believe that Prof. Taylor is starting some research with non-overweight participants so it will be interesting to see if the theory of fat in the pancreas applies to this group as well
 
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NicoleC1971

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Hello Everyone,

Thank you for welcoming me to the forum and thank you for your views on this.

It's great to hear how positively people are dealing with diabetes.

I’m still not sure this really answers the question can low carb reverse diabetes?

I get the nuts coeliac analogy but surely the same thing is applicable? You can manage/control allergies and the like with careful dietary adherence but can these conditions be reversed without lifelong dietary control. As I said my issue is with the term reversal. If you have to maintain a strict dietary control for life then surely that is control or maintenance rather than reversal? Reversal implies reverting to an earlier state.

I find the question of how humans are biologically designed to eat a fascinating one. Indeed in pre-agrarian times humans would have been nomadic and would not have relied on grain as we do now. However evolution takes a very long time and the fact we have evolved a process for digesting carbs suggest we have been eating them for a very long time indeed. I agree that diabetes, obesity heart disease etc. is prevalent in a way that it was not in the past but do we really need to look as far back as Palaeolithic times for an answer? Would not a hundred or so years ago be enough when these modern day maladies were not prevalent like they are now? Many cultures across the world eat carbohydrate fibre based diets without the diabestiy crisis we are seeing here, that is until they adopt modern western diets which may be the real problem. Surely if all carbs even moderate fibre based carbs caused diabetes, obesity etc. then wouldn't these conditions would have been highly prevalent the world over for many centuries?

I would love to hear more theories on this.
Hi and welcome. Great questions and I doubt a doctor will bother having this discussion with you. I always want to know how my type 1 diabetes work but the whole debate on diet is fascinating though apt to be partisan at times when keto or carnivores/the Ruminati discuss this with vegans! Nutritional science is young and notoriously hard to prove a hypothesis in.
My take on the human diet is that whilst we evolved to be omnivorous but eating meat enabled us to grow big brains eventually leading to us taming wild grasses into crops, then becoming 'civillised' and eventually inventing foodstuffs that we mainly fail to thrive on.
The amount of grains would have depended on your local agriculture thus some humans have more starch processing enzymes (amalayse) than others and many cultures have thrived by eating large quantities of starch whereas the converse is true for others (Aborigines and Inuits) thus there is a variance in how much starch we can tolerate before it gets stored in the liver and around the pancreas thus leaving to metabolic problems such as type 2.
On the other hand, the most recent part of our history involves eating large amounts of processed carbs and sugars at the expense of nutrient dense whole foods including animal fats due to the parallel fear of saturated fat leading to CVD (a failed hypothesis). Many people have causally linked this change in our diet to the rise of diabobesity (see Robert Lustig on Sugar). The contention of such people as Lustig or Jason fung is that obesity does not cause diabetes but is a downstream effect of a hormonal imbalance driven by excess insulin with excess insulin patterns driven by excess sugar (a fructose overload that the liver cannot handle without fattening) and/or processed carbs needing to be stored as fat by insulin until the person's individual fat storage capacity is reached. Some people can store lots of sub cutaneous fat but don't become diabetic and this is perhaps why. Others are surprised to be diagnosed when still slim (e.g. Michael Mosley).
So any way of eating that rapidly strips down excess stored liver fat by minimising insulin requirement will work to increase someone's insulin sensitivity (as will building more muscle). this could be the Newcastle protocol, fasting or low carb/high fat and the more common commercial diets could still work (i.e. low fat, moderate carb) depending on where the person is starting from because all diets restrict carbs to some extent. However many people feel that low carb/high fat is the best at being sustainable as a lifestyle rather than a quick fix followed by difficulty in establishing an eating pattern that doesn't result in rebounding back into weight gain and/or high blood sugars. the latter is anecdotal but if you go to Public Health Consortium's site you will find comparison of the dietary trials comparing low carb with low fat diets etc.
As for the term reversal vs remission, that's semantic IMO! The work is in recovering normal insulin glucose levels and then finding a way to keep them normal. And there's nothing as powerful as diet and lifestyle for that but some people will need more time and drugs or even bariatric surgery based on individual factors such as level of IR and its duration, pancreatic function or simply an addiction to carbs!
 
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Oldvatr

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Hi @Oldvatr,

Really fascinating thinking. Entirely agree with you. Regretably there don't seem to be any studies on this.
We know that some bgl meters have a sensitvity to Malitol and Sorbitol. and indeed the ISO tests were upgraded to include a specific test for these contaminants

As regards the sugars Maltose etc I have only anecdotal evidence. I am partial to the occasional faggot in my time and the ones purchased from the butcher do me fine. But I did try some frozen ones from the supermarket that my parents used to feed me on, and these spiked me unexpectedly and quite severely. It is only a naked beefburger in gravy after all, so where did the sugar come from. The listed carbs content was reasonable considering it is a meat based product, and there was no sugar declared. Investigations with the manufacturer revealed that they do not need to declare Maltose either as a carbohydrate or a sugar on the contents listing since according to current advice, it is not metabolised, so should have no effecr. But it does on me! I have repeated this experiment and repeated the high bgl results so it is not a misread. And I know dextrose wass used to treat hypos in my mothers day so it must be partially absorbed at least. But its cousin fructose is not metabolised like a carb,

It makes sense evolutionaily that fructose gets put down as lipid fat directly, Fruit is seasonal and comes before winter, so it makes sense for our bodies to pur it into long term storage in the adipocytes for later use. Lipid fat is a more efficient way of storing energy. I liken it as such. An open hearth fire uses kindling and paper for a quick burst of energy, but is soon burns out.. For long term heat output we use coal or anthracite. In between there are heat logs that are made of paper but burn like coal. So fructose is the food equivalent of heat logs.
 

Little Bird

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Messages
110
Hi and welcome. Great questions and I doubt a doctor will bother having this discussion with you. I always want to know how my type 1 diabetes work but the whole debate on diet is fascinating though apt to be partisan at times when keto or carnivores/the Ruminati discuss this with vegans! Nutritional science is young and notoriously hard to prove a hypothesis in.
My take on the human diet is that whilst we evolved to be omnivorous but eating meat enabled us to grow big brains eventually leading to us taming wild grasses into crops, then becoming 'civillised' and eventually inventing foodstuffs that we mainly fail to thrive on.
The amount of grains would have depended on your local agriculture thus some humans have more starch processing enzymes (amalayse) than others and many cultures have thrived by eating large quantities of starch whereas the converse is true for others (Aborigines and Inuits) thus there is a variance in how much starch we can tolerate before it gets stored in the liver and around the pancreas thus leaving to metabolic problems such as type 2.
On the other hand, the most recent part of our history involves eating large amounts of processed carbs and sugars at the expense of nutrient dense whole foods including animal fats due to the parallel fear of saturated fat leading to CVD (a failed hypothesis). Many people have causally linked this change in our diet to the rise of diabobesity (see Robert Lustig on Sugar). The contention of such people as Lustig or Jason fung is that obesity does not cause diabetes but is a downstream effect of a hormonal imbalance driven by excess insulin with excess insulin patterns driven by excess sugar (a fructose overload that the liver cannot handle without fattening) and/or processed carbs needing to be stored as fat by insulin until the person's individual fat storage capacity is reached. Some people can store lots of sub cutaneous fat but don't become diabetic and this is perhaps why. Others are surprised to be diagnosed when still slim (e.g. Michael Mosley).
So any way of eating that rapidly strips down excess stored liver fat by minimising insulin requirement will work to increase someone's insulin sensitivity (as will building more muscle). this could be the Newcastle protocol, fasting or low carb/high fat and the more common commercial diets could still work (i.e. low fat, moderate carb) depending on where the person is starting from because all diets restrict carbs to some extent. However many people feel that low carb/high fat is the best at being sustainable as a lifestyle rather than a quick fix followed by difficulty in establishing an eating pattern that doesn't result in rebounding back into weight gain and/or high blood sugars. the latter is anecdotal but if you go to Public Health Consortium's site you will find comparison of the dietary trials comparing low carb with low fat diets etc.
As for the term reversal vs remission, that's semantic IMO! The work is in recovering normal insulin glucose levels and then finding a way to keep them normal. And there's nothing as powerful as diet and lifestyle for that but some people will need more time and drugs or even bariatric surgery based on individual factors such as level of IR and its duration, pancreatic function or simply an addiction to carbs!

Hi NicoleC, thanks for your fascinating and insightful post, you sound very well read!
 
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StewartH

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Messages
47
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Hi @Little Bird
We are just coming out of a period of 4 or 5 decades when the regular wisdom and best medical advice was that if someone became type 2 diabetic this was an inescapable condition and it was considered normal that the health of the individual would steadily deteriorate over their remaining years. Medication would help keeping blood sugar levels down but not to a level that would ensure continuing health. As conditions worsened the subject would have been put on insulin with all the fun that it brings to life. During this time of course they were recommending the subject kept eating carbs as part of a healthy low fat diet.

We are in a time of change. Extraordinarily, this change is mostly driven from grass roots, the people around you on this forum and many others. Many, like myself, are choosing a diet against the advice of their doctors, because of the enormous benefits it gives to everyday life. It needs workijg at but it is well worth it.

From that perspective, consider that use of the term 'reversal'. Having been told you would have to take medication for the rest of your life, you find a way to stop taking it. A reversal surely.
OK, its not the magic fix that puts everything back to how it was before....but a great deal better that the alternative.

Welcome to the club.
 

Little Bird

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Messages
110
We know that some bgl meters have a sensitvity to Malitol and Sorbitol. and indeed the ISO tests were upgraded to include a specific test for these contaminants

As regards the sugars Maltose etc I have only anecdotal evidence. I am partial to the occasional faggot in my time and the ones purchased from the butcher do me fine. But I did try some frozen ones from the supermarket that my parents used to feed me on, and these spiked me unexpectedly and quite severely. It is only a naked beefburger in gravy after all, so where did the sugar come from. The listed carbs content was reasonable considering it is a meat based product, and there was no sugar declared. Investigations with the manufacturer revealed that they do not need to declare Maltose either as a carbohydrate or a sugar on the contents listing since according to current advice, it is not metabolised, so should have no effecr. But it does on me! I have repeated this experiment and repeated the high bgl results so it is not a misread. And I know dextrose wass used to treat hypos in my mothers day so it must be partially absorbed at least. But its cousin fructose is not metabolised like a carb,

It makes sense evolutionaily that fructose gets put down as lipid fat directly, Fruit is seasonal and comes before winter, so it makes sense for our bodies to pur it into long term storage in the adipocytes for later use. Lipid fat is a more efficient way of storing energy. I liken it as such. An open hearth fire uses kindling and paper for a quick burst of energy, but is soon burns out.. For long term heat output we use coal or anthracite. In between there are heat logs that are made of paper but burn like coal. So fructose is the food equivalent of heat logs.
Hi
great analogy !

Oldvatr, apologies for going off topic but may i ask you a question?I i was reading a fascinating thread last night which you posted, I think it was you. It was late and I was tired so I thought I'd leave it till tomorrow but I can't seem to find it again. I can't remember the title but it was about some research by Valter Longo in which he found that beta cell function could be r regenerated with a fasting diet. Could you help me out please?
 

Little Bird

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Messages
110
Hi @Little Bird
We are just coming out of a period of 4 or 5 decades when the regular wisdom and best medical advice was that if someone became type 2 diabetic this was an inescapable condition and it was considered normal that the health of the individual would steadily deteriorate over their remaining years. Medication would help keeping blood sugar levels down but not to a level that would ensure continuing health. As conditions worsened the subject would have been put on insulin with all the fun that it brings to life. During this time of course they were recommending the subject kept eating carbs as part of a healthy low fat diet.

We are in a time of change. Extraordinarily, this change is mostly driven from grass roots, the people around you on this forum and many others. Many, like myself, are choosing a diet against the advice of their doctors, because of the enormous benefits it gives to everyday life. It needs workijg at but it is well worth it.

From that perspective, consider that use of the term 'reversal'. Having been told you would have to take medication for the rest of your life, you find a way to stop taking it. A reversal surely.
OK, its not the magic fix that puts everything back to how it was before....but a great deal better that the alternative.

Welcome to the club.
Thanks for making me welcome Stuart.
 

Oldvatr

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Messages
8,470
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Hi
great analogy !

Oldvatr, apologies for going off topic but may i ask you a question?I i was reading a fascinating thread last night which you posted, I think it was you. It was late and I was tired so I thought I'd leave it till tomorrow but I can't seem to find it again. I can't remember the title but it was about some research by Valter Longo in which he found that beta cell function could be r regenerated with a fasting diet. Could you help me out please?

Wasn't me or my thread. Valter Longo is noted for selling a very expensive diet plan PROLON at $300 a 5 day pop to be repeated three times a year until you drop dead. The diet is a plant based prepared meals plan that is apparently based on hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of scientific studies. I am normally good at ferreting out studies, but his contributions are in virtual reality somewhere since they do not occur in any archives I normally use.

The plan claims to mimic a a water only fast but provides all the nutrients we need. Err? My alarm bells are ringing on this one. Suggest giving it a miss.
 

kokhongw

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Messages
2,394
Type of diabetes
I reversed my Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
Hi
great analogy !

Oldvatr, apologies for going off topic but may i ask you a question?I i was reading a fascinating thread last night which you posted, I think it was you. It was late and I was tired so I thought I'd leave it till tomorrow but I can't seem to find it again. I can't remember the title but it was about some research by Valter Longo in which he found that beta cell function could be r regenerated with a fasting diet. Could you help me out please?

You are probably referring to this
https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/th...cell-regeneration-to-reverse-diabetes.116847/
 

Oldvatr

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8,470
Type of diabetes
Type 2
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Gosh it was my thread after all. I did not run with it since it seemed to be bssically doing what Jason Fung has been promoting i.e. Intermittent fssting. But Jasons advice is cheaper to implement, and has far less of the hype that Valter uses to impress his readers. Knowing Valter is running a significant meal replacement diet plan on the back of this research makes me cautious of claims being made.

The study was made using mice, and is making claims that a diet can regenerate beta cells in T1D. Forget the pseudo science bit, if this paper is valid then it needs much more work before it can be tested on humans, who after all have a very different endocrine system to mice. He was vey quick in launchinng his diet plan based on these claims, so I still advise caution before getting too far into this gentlemans web. He has a very commercial profile on the web if you get my meaning. He is not showing up as a qualified endocrinologist for example, so his use of that jargon suggests he is using it to blind us with science. His profile on Quackwatch is interesting, and wikkepedia does not think too highly of him either.

His expertise is in ageing, and not diabetes. He may have solved the T1D issue, but I have my doubts. If you are looking for the magic bullet I suggest it is not to be found in that report.
 
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kokhongw

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Messages
2,394
Type of diabetes
I reversed my Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
Prolon makes fasting fashionable and acceptable to the medical establishment... The rest of us can just fast...
 

Little Bird

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Messages
110
Gosh it was my thread after all. I did not run with it since it seemed to be bssically doing what Jason Fung has been promoting i.e. Intermittent fssting. But Jasons advice is cheaper to implement, and has far less of the hype that Valter uses to impress his readers. Knowing Valter is running a significant meal replacement diet plan on the back of this research makes me cautious of claims being made.

The study was made using mice, and is making claims that a diet can regenerate beta cells in T1D. Forget the pseudo science bit, if this paper is valid then it needs much more work before it can be tested on humans, who after all have a very different endocrine system to mice. He was vey quick in launchinng his diet plan based on these claims, so I still advise caution before getting too far into this gentlemans web. He has a very commercial profile on the web if you get my meaning. He is not showing up as a qualified endocrinologist for example, so his use of that jargon suggests he is using it to blind us with science. His profile on Quackwatch is interesting, and wikkepedia does not think too highly of him either.

His expertise is in ageing, and not diabetes. He may have solved the T1D issue, but I have my doubts. If you are looking for the magic bullet I suggest it is not to be found in that report.
I am curious to have a read of it but I couldn't agree with you more, extreme caution is advisable with such a radical plan. Probably doesn't taste too great either.
 

Oldvatr

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8,470
Type of diabetes
Type 2
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Tablets (oral)
I am curious to have a read of it but I couldn't agree with you more, extreme caution is advisable with such a radical plan. Probably doesn't taste too great either.
What concerns me is that the diet plan is directly following on from the research done by the same person, so there seems to be no independancy to offer consumer protection. The sales pitch is notable for its lack of information on safety or possible side effects. If you look at the diet shakes used for the Newwcastle Diet, or the DIRECT diet or Counterbalance, then the suppliers of the shakes give a full nutritional breakdown of what is in their potion. So you can work out if it meets your RDA nutrtional needs over the period of the diet. The other shake makers also include safety information on possible ketosis which is possible on an 800kcal diet plan. Instead we have to rely on this guys word that the potion will meet all your needs and is safe: again without any external oversight. This is what makes me suspicious that this guy is only in it for the money. The whole sales pitch has an air of snake oil.
 

kokhongw

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Messages
2,394
Type of diabetes
I reversed my Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
This blog post provides some details of the ProLon magical content.
https://fastlifehacks.com/prolon-fast-mimicking-diet-box-contents-calories-macros/

upload_2019-11-28_11-39-58.png


And others have tried the mimic the content...
https://www.quantifiedbob.com/fasting-mimicking-diet/

although I think it would be much easier to just water fast 4-5 days...
https://thequantifiedbody.net/fast-mimicking-diet/
 

Oldvatr

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Messages
8,470
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
This blog post provides some details of the ProLon magical content.
https://fastlifehacks.com/prolon-fast-mimicking-diet-box-contents-calories-macros/

View attachment 36949

And others have tried the mimic the content...
https://www.quantifiedbob.com/fasting- but has folate as required by law.mimicking-diet/

although I think it would be much easier to just water fast 4-5 days...
https://thequantifiedbody.net/fast-mimicking-diet/
Thank you. A quick scan down the nutrition listings show that the diet is devoid of iron. It has the standard folate additive as required by law for fortified foods. The Omega-3 supplement is DHA so is not as effective as the EPA variant. The Vitamin A is beta carotene which is not true vit A and is not in a readily absorbable form for us. There is no Vit D3 or Vit K2 in the additive, Not sure of calcium intake.

Although low carb it is probably above the ketosis level for most.

The diet over 5 days will not harm you, but is definitely not suitable for use over a longer period (suggest price would limit that to a certain extent) So it contains more nutrients than plain water but has to be a quickfix blast to shock the system. Ultra low fat means participants are likely to be feeling hungry during the diet period so will faithfully mimic fasting in that respect.

Since it is Plant Based, it does not contain choline so the body will have difficulty repairing any inflmmation damage or damaged cholesterol or mitochondria. There is also no L carnitine or triptosan so there will be a drop in energy levels to be expected since many of the added amino acids will not be metabolised properly. I have not checked the fibre issue, but it looks like this diet will suffer from the smoothie effect in that it is a soup based diet so much of the fibre will be processed into mush.
 

Honeyend

Well-Known Member
Messages
151
Hi, Littlebird.

I always think when you are learning about diabetes Dr Unwin is the palace to start. Dr Unwin, if I have right clip starts with the patient who was not over weight, but had symptoms of Type 2
He is a GP, and has seen what a low carb diet can do, and has seen the results in his patients. I also think he has a very clear presentation style. If you follow the youtube ball of string, it leads you to other talks how low carb can improve other things like you liver function, which can be a sign of fatty liver.
There are also tecnical presentations on youtube by other Drs, of the other benifits of low carb, it depends how far you want to go. The one on the role of fructose on the brain is a recent favorite of mine, if you studied chemistry you should like it.

If you are looking for something thats going to make you never think about what you eat again, you are going to be disappointed. Diet can improve your blood results and prevent any futher damage, so some would say they have the reversed the potential risks of Type 2.
I have diabetes because I was very ill and part of my pancreas died. I could have died, so what ever I have left of it I am going to look after. If you have Type2, you have to protect what fuction you have left, losing weight, if you are over weight and cutting the carbs is the only proven way to do that without drug intervention. You can decide based on the evidence what you would rather do.
In my job I have to question all that I am told, and I always believed what I had been told had been based on research, I now have discovered a lot of these 'truths' were based on opinion.So I think its really good that you take a good look at all the evidence.
I really love this one, a decontruction of the EAT-Lancet report.


Hi Antje, thank you for your reply.

I take your point about how others interpret the term analysis paralysis.

I hadn't heard that term before and I rather liked it, I thought it described me very well. I studied chemistry at university when I was young (though my career went in a very different direction) and it taught me to always be open minded and to question, challenge, analyse and to never accept things at face value and never to make assumptions on very little evidence. This can mean that I often find it difficult to make up my own mind when there is a lot of conflicting evidence and viewpoints etc. so I can often stay stuck or paralyzed in the analysis of it. So I thought the term analysis paralysis quite apt. I tend to apply this caution in all areas of my life including with people, and in my current profession making assumptions and judgements about people (and dishing out advice) is generally considered to be unethical and unprofessional behaviour. These things can be harmful to others, so I must admit it does bug me when other people make judgements and assumptions about people without really knowing anything about them. However I can see how others may have interpreted the analysis paralysis to mean I am paralysed with regard to dealing with my diabetes, but if I have caused offence to DCUK Mod or anyone else for that matter then I apologise, unreservedly.

My original post was intended to open up a discussion (not an argument) about the question of diabetes reversal because there seems to be much confusion about it and many differing points of view about it and I was, and still am, very interested to hear other peoples thoughts and viewpoints. For me personally such a discussion is both stimulating and informative. I purposely avoided sharing my own experience for a number of reasons. For one, I wasn’t looking for advice or guidance and didn’t want the discussion to be about me but rather the question being asked. Two I don’t want to be labelled and classified as belonging to any particular camp or group like low carb or vegan or whatever else. Three, and most importantly of all, I didn’t want my own experience to influence anyone else as I don’t think my particular case is very typical.

As it seems to matter I will share.

I was diagnosed Type 2 in early June this year, my numbers were only slightly into the diabetic range and was told it was because I was overweight and insulin resistant, most likely because of fat in my liver. I was rather shocked as there is no diabetes at all in my family despite some of my family members also being overweight. But its not that simple of course. At that time I hadn't yet done any research into diets and diabetes management etc. and didn’t know much about it. I thought the first and most obvious stating point would be to cut out the junk and start exercising. So that’s what I did. I stopped eating all the obvious rubbish like cakes, biscuits, crisps, pastry and ice cream etc. I was quite unfit so I began with just walking every day. Around this time I started to read about all the various approaches to diabetes like low carb, Newcastle diet etc., but before I was done I found I didn’t need any of these approaches. Simply by cutting out the junk and excising every day I found my weight was coming down and with it so too were my blood sugar readings. Literally by the end of June I was consistently getting normal readings. I recently had a blood test and my A1c was normal. My doctor said keep doing what your doing.

At the moment I don’t eat any kind of sugary foods and am careful about potatoes, rice and pasta, they are very starchy, but I can easily eat pulses and grains like buckwheat and quinoa without any ill effect. I freely eat all veggies and most fruits but not all and I exercise most days. So far this is working for me but whether or not it I will always be able to eat this way remains to be seen. So am I cured? Is my diabetes truly reversed? Well I suppose that depends upon who you ask. My doctor classes me as in remission (whatever that means) but will this always be the case, I simply do not know.

As I said I have been very reluctant to share this with you because I fear that other people will read this and think that this approach may work for them too. It may not. From what I have read on the forums here at DCUK and elsewhere I suspect that my case is not very typical. The readings that got me my diagnosis were very close to the borderline and as such seem not have needed an aggressive approach. I have wondered if maybe my diagnosis was false though my doctor assured me that it was correct based on the numbers. Ill leave you to form your own conclusions about this.

I think it worth repeating that though my approach worked for me it may not work for you! I was lucky I got off lightly but your diabetes may need something more aggressive than just giving up the junk, though it is perhaps a good starting place until you have found your own path. In any case I do believe that exercise and emotional as well as physical self care are always important.

As a result of all this I have developed a passionate interest in diabetes and all that goes with it. It is probably obvious by now that I am both puzzled and fascinated by the concept of reversal, remission or what ever you choose to call it, so I thought I'd ask what others think about it. I have really enjoyed reading all your posts, there is much food for thought and further analysis paralysis!
 

Listlad

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Prediabetes
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I was diagnosed as prediabetic a while ago, went low carb and my blood sugars dropped fast. All was great at the 6 month tests. But I gradually slipped back into old eating habits and a couple of years later I was diabetic.
This time around I found my blood sugars dropped fast again, and even the early morning tests were consistently within range by 3 months on 85g a day.
I could eat carbs for a day, maybe a week, maybe longer, but I'm not going to risk it. The only change I made after a year of good results was to increase the maximum amount of carbs I will eat in a day, so I can eat out without panicking there is nothing on the menu. But I only go up to 130g, and most days stay under 100g.
Same as me. Maximum of 130 grams a day but often under 100grams. It gives me flexibility.

At both of my 2 surgeries the term remission has been frowned upon. Symptom reversal is more palatable to some and reflects what actually happens. After all it is the reversal of the diabetic conditions in each of us that counts.
 
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