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pre diabetes cure so why not diabetes cure?

H

helen louise

Well-Known Member
Messages
155
Type of diabetes
LADA
Treatment type
Insulin
I'm probably missing something but from what I have read the only difference between pre diabetes & full blown diabetes is a couple of mmols so if you can cure prediabetes with diet/exercise why does the same not apply to full blown diabetes?
 
A pre diabetic will always have a tendency to become a full blown diabetic if they do not change their lifestyle. They have halted their diagnosis by eating a diet suitable for a Type2 and exercising but they will always have to watch what they do in this respect. If they revert back to their old ways then they will be diagnosed. They are lucky in the respect that they have had a warning.

A Type2 can control their diabetes in the same way but it is never cured. You hear the words, cured and reversed for Type2's but it just means that they have gained control.
 
I cannot agree with catherinecherub,or others of her persuasion.I did the Newcastle Diet last year,and one month after completing the diet all my blood sugars came back normal.I have now gone a further three months off medication.During the three month period I watched my calories ,aiming for a maintenance diet of 1800 calories, but not what I ate.At the end of this period I still had normal non-diabetic blood sugars and have been released back into the wild by my diabetes nurse for a full year until my next checkup.

My nurse thinks probably I have a genetic pre-disposition towards diabetes,but provided I eat correctly,and exercise every day,there is no reason why I cannot remain in the non-diabetic state for ever.

It is early days for the Newcastle diet but theoretically once you have de-fatted your pancreas and liver,and restored your insulin sensitivity back to normal you should be OK provided you maintain a healthy lifestyle.
 
I think your answer says it all Frank.
Your levels are now in the non diabetic range the same as mine are. I know if I was to eat excessive amounts of carbs with my meals then my levels would rise. If you eat in excess of what you are allowing yourself then your levels will rise too. Try it and see, not just one meal but as an ongoing project without restricting yourself to 1800 calories or restricting your carbs.
I am nine years on, have never taken medication and my weight is slightly under an acceptable BMI. I am a diabetic, or for those who prefer, I have diabetes.
 
youngmanfrank said:
but provided I eat correctly,and exercise every day,there is no reason why I cannot remain in the non-diabetic state for ever.
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Which is pretty much exactly what Catherine said :thumbup:



And for the umpteenth time there is no such thing as a Newcastle diet, if there is it would probably be tatties, sausages and Newcastle Brown Ale and I mean no offence to the fine city of Newcastle when I say that but there is no Newcastle diet just a study with 14 test subjects, 3 of which dropped out, the Newcastle study used a commercially available diet as the basis for its study, Optifast I believe although it may have been Optislim but whichever it was it is that diet that the Newcastle study used. And it is also proven that 86% of those who try these diets fail, so you can count yourself as one of the lucky 20 odd percent that have a good result, just dont go back to your old ways/diet though or your diabetes will return and bite you again.

I too have near normal blood glucose levels since losing 4 stone in weight and have maintained that weight for three years now, just as lots of others have, so dont be thinking that the Optifast diet is the only way to gain control, there are almost as many winning diets as there are well controlled diabetics :thumbup:
 
Just been doing a post under weight loss.I am four months post diet,still have normal blood sugars,and have been told to go away and come back in a year for re-testing.As an experiment I ate what I wanted during my first three months,fish and chips,white bread,sausages,pizza,but not to excess.I calculated 1800 calories per day would maintain my weight loss.I did continue exercising three times a day.For the next year I am back to healthier foods plus exercise.

The point of my post under weight loss was that I had come across a Newcastle University press release which quoted a volunteer from the original trial.Prior to trial he had been six years on gliclazide,post trial his insulin levels were normal and he was off meds.He went on to say that 18 months on he was still off meds,implying a longer term benefit from the trial diet.This is the first indication I have come across that post diet the improvement is maintained beyond short term.

The peer reviewed scientific paper in Diabetlogia concluded "Normalisation of both beta cell function and hepatic liver sensitivity in type 2 diabetes was achieved by dietary energy restriction alone.This was associated with decreased pancreatic and liver triacylglycerol stores.The abnormalities underlying type 2 diabetes are reversible by reducing dietary energy intake"
 
youngmanfrank said:
The point of my post under weight loss was that I had come across a Newcastle University press release which quoted a volunteer from the original trial.Prior to trial he had been six years on gliclazide,post trial his insulin levels were normal and he was off meds.He went on to say that 18 months on he was still off meds,implying a longer term benefit from the trial diet.This is the first indication I have come across that post diet the improvement is maintained beyond short term.
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Can you post your information sources youngmanfrank because as far as I was aware the Newcastle study ended only last year and there had been no long term follow up past 12 weeks or so and I thought they only used subjects who had been diagnosed diabetics for four years or less. But perhaps I am wrong.
 
Frank

I can understand that if at the time you were showing classic diabetic symptoms and had as you suggest developed a very high insulin resistance but alongside that hadn't destroyed a good proportion of your Beta cells then dieting (in my view by whatever means) and thus at some point reducing your insulin resistance down to normal would mean you may now function normally. If that was the case I don't think I'd particularly disagree with what you've said.

In fact my wife did something similar a few years back. She got as far as being pre diabetic went on the slimming world diet , lost lots of weight and now also has only slightly elevated BG's. She can certainly eat a lot more carbs than I can and keep her BG's from breaking through to the danger levels even if she eats something particularly sugary.

So that's the critical question. Did you get told or do you know what percentage of your beta cells remain undamaged?

Not trying to undermine your achievement in anyway I think it's great news you've got yourself fit and healthy but we all need to be careful not to raise peoples hopes.
 
The full link is http://www.ncl.ac.uk/press.office/press ... 2-diabetes or go in via http://www.ncl.ac.uk/magres and follow links.

My diabetes followed normal progression.Early cataracts in 2004 while undiagnosed led to me being asked by the eye surgeon if I was type 2,my reply being in the negative.Apparently cataracts are regarded as a classic sign of type 2 diabetes.In 2006 post yet another operation I was told I had sugar in my urine,was classified as pre-diabetic and put on diet and exercise.My blood sugars went inexorably downhill until in 2008 I crossed over into the diabetic range of blood sugars,at which point I was re-classified and put on 3xMetformin.After more than two and a half years without improvement and in fact still getting worse I was seriously depressed by both the condition and the side effects so when I read about the Newcastle University Diet to reverse type 2 diabetes (to give its full name Sid Bonkers) I felt I had nothing to lose.At no time have I been offered tests regarding beta cells etc and have not even been referred to a Diabetes clinic.

I have always tested and have been puzzled by some of my results.The fasting blood and Hb tests on diagnosis for full type 2 came back within the diabetic range,however the GTT was still within the pre-diabetic range.From this I concluded that I was still producing lots of insulin and that my body was just insensitive to what I was producing.This would suggest that not many beta cells had been destroyed and is possibly why I reacted so well to the Newcastle diet.

I think there is a difference between controlling your blood sugars by diet and controlling them naturally with normal insulin,and this is why I deliberately went out of my way to stress test my system by eating "bad" foods during the three month period post my first results.Testing showed that peaks were lower than before and blood levels returned to normal much quicker than previously so I am hopeful that the next year on "good" food will result in a positive result when I am finally re-tested.
 
If you don't mind me asking Frank how much did you weigh to begin with and how much were you when finished and realised you could eat some carbs again? I actually don't doubt what you say in your posts as I can't see any reason why you would knowingly want to mislead people but I think you need to be a bit clearer at what getting to that result entailed. It sounds like a lot of hard work on your part.

Do you think the "Newcastle" bit was important or do you think that any low carb or low calorie regime would do the same thing but maybe take a bit longer?

Also do you think if you went back to your old ways and eating habits that you would pretty soon be back to being diabetic again? Its one thing saying you can now tolerate more carbs or even the occasional very spikey meal but I bet you now stick to a far healthier regime than you did whatever mix of food you now eat.

I just don't want anyone to be under the illusion that what you did is some kind of miracle cure that would allow people to simply reinstate their previous life styles.
 
Before diagnosis I went for an operation and they weighed me at 16.5 stones,which appalled me as I did not realise high heavy I had got.I dieted normally for a while but on diagnosis I was still 15st 10lbs.When I was eventually put on metformin I dropped fairly quickly but stuck for ages on 13.5 stones.Nothing I did shifted the weight and as previously stated in the background my blood sugar levels got steadily worse.

On the Newcastle diet my weight dropped quickly and by the seventh week I had stopped at 12 stone,which I maintain four months on.This is my weight as a young man in my 20's (I am now 62).I was helped in my weight loss by my hamster on a wheel exercise regime.My belief is that it is the sudden reduction of calories to below maintenance level which forces the body to consume fat and achieve the results I have described.No other diet does this.

I would not never knowingly mislead anyone on something as important as diabetes.Something made me diabetic,probably the type of food I ate (high in bad fats) ,the quantity of food I ate,and the lack of exercise due to my stressful job (I owned and ran my own business,driving 40,000 miles per year).

As far as I am concerned at the moment I have a golden opportunity to start over with plenty of exercise and a diet low in fat,high in fruit and vegetables and portion controlled to avoid excess calories over and above what I need.

I think I was helped in achieving my results by being diagnosed relatively early before permanent damage had been done to my pancreas.
 
Sorry Frank didn't see you had posted back so thanks for that. It makes it clear what really hard work you had to put in to get your result and how you have to mostly to your healthy new life style to maintain it. Let's hope a few more of us can achieve the same things you have. :clap:
 
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