Is it possible for diabetes to go completely if you lose a lot of weight?. Someone I know has been told by her Dr that hers has almost gone as she has lost weight.
I always thought that if you are a diabetic you will always be a diabetic.
Who knows, at best I would think with weight loss it can keep it at bay forever as long as the weight stays off. Thats only if its weight related diabetes. but, will depend on if there was any damage to insulin producing cells from exhaustion during that time. some may recover fully, others only partially and continue with poor insulin production and continued resistance. All ypes of diabetes is better if "normal" weight. Then theres the genetic type 2, which is being debated about alot that weight gain is a result from diabetes and not vice~versa. All we can do its try to manage our individual circumstances.
Is it possible for diabetes to go completely if you lose a lot of weight?. Someone I know has been told by her Dr that hers has almost gone as she has lost weight.
I always thought that if you are a diabetic you will always be a diabetic.
That is the conventional wisdom yes but it has been observed since the early 1980s that people who underwent bariatiric surgery appeared to be cured of their diabetes. In 2008 Roy Taylor published his Twin Cycle Hypothesis about the causes of diabetes and his explanation of why it was progressive. If the theory was correct, a build up of fats in the liver resulted in fats in the pancreas which led to type 2 diabetes. The weight loss observed in patients who had surgery would appear to explain the sudden reawakening of the insulin function. In 2011 this was tested on a number of patients who underwent a severe calorie restrictive diet, to mimick the effects of a gastric band'. Blood glucose levels obviously dropped quickly but this was followed by a restoration of the insulin function. Both liver and pancreatic triaglycerides were return to normal ranges.
However, an unknown amount of the insulin producing beta cell mass is permanently lost and which cannot be recovered, but some didn't die off but were merely 'metabolically inhibited'. In practice this means that you still need to be careful because, whatever your personal tipping point, from non diabetic to diabetic, was, it is now lower, because you now have some damage. Crucially though, the decline is halted. It need not deteriorate further. Before the advice was it will get worse and there's nothing you can do about it. Well, there is, but you can't get back into old bad habits.
I have lost 5 stone in weight since being diagnosed T2. My diabetes nurse told me that in her career she has known 2 T2 patients who "reversed" (sic) their T2 through weight loss.