Can you really prevent type 2 diabetes?

Maurice09 said:

Fact: Diabetes can be prevented and reversed.

It is estimated that 80% of individuals with pre-diabetes can successfully prevent type 2 diabetes with lifestyle changes alone. These changes do not need to be dramatic and should not affect your current lifestyle. It all comes down to understanding how diabetes works.

What does it mean to reverse diabetes? Many people do not like the word reverse, and I guess they are right the most accurate term is remission. Many people with pre-diabetes and individuals with type 2 diabetes that had the condition for several years, but who are not yet experiencing the major negative effects of type 2 diabetes can get their blood sugars to a point that they will no longer be classified as either pre-diabetes or type 2 diabetes.

It all comes down to the intensity of your dietary changes in particular. Eliminate or significantly cut down on refined carbohydrates in particular and the blood sugars will eventually go down.

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You're preaching to the converted here - we love the term reversed, as even after our situation being ignored for far too long by those who should know better, we see the numbers falling and normality returning.

It isn't just the refined carbohydrates which affect blood glucose, so if you need any help with the prediabetes, just ask.

It's entirely possible, as many here can attest. I would only caution that without understanding the role insulin and insulin resistance plays, you may find it more difficult that you might expect.

KennyA said:

Hi Maurice09. This website and forum are dedicated to a low carb approach to managing diabetes. You might want to read around a little, particularly the "Success Stories" section, where you'll see quite a few accounts. How's the rest of your family getting on?

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Surely, this website and forum supports all approaches, and whatever works, for any given individual, works?

Some folks don't need to go low carb, just cut down, albeit usually on carbohydrates.

I'm not picking an argument, just making it clear anyone arriving here isn't necessarily required to go low carb.

Hi
Lol lol your fact about diabetes is a bit vague.
I'm in year 50 of being type 1 and mine cannot be reversed but my dad developed type 2 and he reversed his.

I spend a fair bit of time dismissing certain posts on here as they are about things i either don't know about or disagree with down to how i look after myself and what works for me.

I wish you all well no matter which strain of diabetes you have lol...

Tony

Maurice09 said:

Fact: Diabetes can be prevented and reversed.

It is estimated that 80% of individuals with pre-diabetes can successfully prevent type 2 diabetes with lifestyle changes alone. These changes do not need to be dramatic and should not affect your current lifestyle. It all comes down to understanding how diabetes works.

What does it mean to reverse diabetes? Many people do not like the word reverse, and I guess they are right the most accurate term is remission. Many people with pre-diabetes and individuals with type 2 diabetes that had the condition for several years, but who are not yet experiencing the major negative effects of type 2 diabetes can get their blood sugars to a point that they will no longer be classified as either pre-diabetes or type 2 diabetes.

It all comes down to the intensity of your dietary changes in particular. Eliminate or significantly cut down on refined carbohydrates in particular and the blood sugars will eventually go down.

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I don’t like ‘reverse’ they should use Remission. My diagnosis was very dramatic and sudden, 999 and in hospital a week, I’d NO signals what so ever. I went Low Carb lowered the HbA1C dramatically from 138 but I have NOT reversed or put it into remission ‍ I have other factors that might be the reasons why. That was 4 years ago in June. I am about to have some blood tests to see if in fact I have Late on set T1 ‍
I understand from my diabetes nurse that not everyone can put their Diabetes into remission but it shouldn’t stop you trying

PS This is only for Tyoe 2’s!

Another T2 and my BG is diet-controlled and comfortably into the non-diabetic range. I am also a pedant about language, so please do understand I enter this conversation on that basis, as it doesn't matter what we call our BG if we can keep it consistently in the non-diabetic range. But for me, where verbal accuracy is so important - once diabetic always diabetic. We haven't really cured it, reversed it or put it into remission - we still are diabetic, and if we went back to eating too many carbs/sugars for our individual bodies to manage, we would go back to the symptoms that triggered the diagnosis. But - really we can call it what we something-well like, because we all deserve a gold cup for wherever we are on diabetes management.

I'll bite, as a fellow pedant at seeker of the right word....

- but, sensitively; I think there is a lot to unpack in what you say @Angela64 - many of us feel that dramatic and sudden shock; even without needing a trip to A&E.

.... So, I would start off, with - many types of diabetes can be prevented by following better nutritional guidelines than we tend to accept now. Better metabolic health, and less insulin resistance can only improve what is clearly a worsening problem.

But not all. There has been some level of diabetes going back into iniquity.

then - remission versus reversal.

I truly believe that insulin resistance can and should be reversed - it is a reversible process, though may be more difficult and/ or long term for some than others based on genetic predisposition and current metabolic state. Reversing insulin resistance will lead to putting T2DM in remission.

Remission - so the reason that we use the word is precisely because of the danger in slipping back on old habits, as @Outlier rightly suggests. The issue I have is that there is an almost Canute-like sense of temporarily holding back the inevitable built into the generally held meaning of the word, because of the association with addictive behaviour. Stop the addictive behaviour, the word whispers in your ear, and you can reduce the symptoms... but only until you don't...

Whereas - I also truly believe that if we better understand the interplay between foods and hormones, we can set ourselves up to not trip over these chemically-driven behaviours. If we only think in terms of temporary diets - that only perpetuates a sense of failing in some way which just adds to the problem.

We need to be more open about the effect that some foods have. Sugar can have effects on brain metabolism more extreme than cocaine, yet there is no acceptance that there may be an addictive quality to it - we (in my opinion) need to be more open about this.

And - part of that conversation needs to be about taking the shackles off the negative association with fat. There is more and more evidence all the time that a mix of healthy fats (which is virtually all fats except the industrially refined oils from seeds and vegetables) is not only nutritious and necessary for good mental health, it does the very opposite of driving these chemical cravings; indeed, most of the benefits of the latest GLP-1 based medications naturally come from eating a good range of healthy fats. To pull in another pedantic word - "mimetic" simply means to imitate the natural... Imagine if we called Ozempic and Wegovy and the like "Medications for imitating the hormonal benefits of eating more fat"

I’ve had SO many usually none diabetics say ‘Oh you can reverse it with that diet Dr So & So has devised’ ‍ Well I haven’t even being strict quite low carb. I find it very disheartening.

Chris24Main said:

I'll bite, as a fellow pedant at seeker of the right word....

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Chris24Main said:

many types of diabetes can be prevented by following better nutritional guidelines than we tend to accept now. Better metabolic health, and less insulin resistance can only improve what is clearly a worsening problem.

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Another pedant here. Which types of diabetes apart from T2 (and possibly gestational in some cases) can be prevented following different nutritional guidelines?

Angela64 said:

I’ve had SO many usually none diabetics say ‘Oh you can reverse it with that diet Dr So & So has devised’ ‍ Well I haven’t even being strict quite low carb. I find it very disheartening.

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It can be very frustrating when people for who a particular approach works feel they've found the holy grail that works for all.
This is just not how it works!

Regardless of what type of diabetes you turn out to have, you're doing the best you can.
And for some, the best doesn't even mean going low carb, the best treatment is about quality of life while reducing risks, and including medication in this balance with T2 is a legitimate choice.

I would stand by what I said, precisely word for word. I'm not advocating low carb per se, but the current guidelines for the majority of food intake as carbs, and demonising fats, has done terrible harm to every population that has adopted it. That is not at all to blame anyone for doing just that - because of course - I did.

Chris24Main said:

I would stand by what I said, precisely word for word. I'm not advocating low carb per se, but the current guidelines for the majority of food intake as carbs, and demonising fats, has done terrible harm to every population that has adopted it. That is not at all to blame anyone for doing just that - because of course - I did.

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I agree with your take on current food guidelines.
But I think that your statement that "many types of diabetes can be prevented by following better nutritional guidelines" needs a solid source, and I'd like to know which types of diabetes you're thinking of.

@ianf0ster - yes, you are totally correct, I tripped over auto correct.

@Antje77 - sorry if I sound obstructionist, but I specifically don't want to say anything other than what I've said. The rates of all types of diabetes are rising at rates that are not evolutionarily likely. The guidelines for what we should eat are connected (as, I think you agree with); therefore, many types of diabetes can be prevented by doing something different. (along with all "modern" chronic illnesses, via the pathway of insulin resistance, inflammation and oxidative stress) There are many people with diabetes of many types who would not otherwise. I don't want to get into a conversation about where we may disagree on the specific, because I think it's much more important in the generality; where I hope we broadly agree.

I can quote rates of diabetes over time, but I don't think I'm actually saying anything controversial.

This isn't the place to go any further. (though happy to continue on my thread)
I do not, in any way place any judgement on any personal choice made by anyone about anything, and agree totally with the expression that people will have personal experiences, and personal choices to make.

I agree with @Melgar on the broadness (I think it's incredibly personal and unique; and let's not forget that the meaning of the word itself is simply that a person is peeing too much - that tells us very little of use) - and that's partly why I don't want to get into listing types of diabetes.

If I could turn back time and been told that having borderline Gestational Diabetes twice would have made me more prone to getting Type 2, then maybe I could have prevented mine.

Maybe if food hadn't started to be messed about with in the 1970s, Ancel Keys had not become a scientist, people had taken in the low fat mantra. There are so many things that have affected the rise in cases of Type 2 Diabetes.

I was told that I should cut out fat and eat cereals back in my early 20s - despite all my protestations the same message was hammered in for the next forty years until I was vastly overweight and quite unwell and still protesting, though by then I think I had PTSD of some sort from the vile insulting language used to let me know just how right the medical opinion was.
For me the term reversal is correct - though the damage done to my physical well being by the decades of bad dietary advice is actually quite unremitting I perceive that I am no longer proceeding along the route of ever increasing weight, ever reducing energy and strength but heading back towards a better existence.

lovinglife said:

I agree, I eat less than 20g carb a day and have never been able to get into the pre diabetic numbers I hover around 49. It can be demotivating when you’re told it’s easy - it’s not!

Doesn’t bother me now, all I can do is my best and it’s my diabetes that I have to take care of, no one else’s. I do worry about some members who come here and expect the holy grail because others have achieved it.

Weight loss doesn’t always equal reversal either- I lost over 11st and still didn’t hit the golden number

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I was putting on weight hand over fist on heart medications not amount of cutting down made any difference, even family were telling me you’re not eat enough. Then became diabetic virtually over night losing weight hand over fist without a reason other than it must have been the ’dire Betes’!