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Reversing Type 2 Diabetes

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Roblivings73

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Hi All,

I've had type 2 diabetes now for almost 12 months. When I was told I had diabetes I felt cheated in some way as I live an active life style and eat quite well. For the last year I've managed to keep my blood sugar levels around 6 and under so doing well. The reason I'm posting in here today is that I watched a program the other week that featured Joel Fuhrman MD based in the states and he has a book called Fasting & Eating For Health, I purchased this book and would like to know if anyone has come across this and done the things that he speaks about to reverse type 2 diabetes. Would love to hear from anyone who has tried this.

Regards
Rob
 
Hi Rob,

I haven't heard of this book, but there was some programme on the tv recently about someone (Australian I think) who was going around America promoting a starvation diet. Sorry to be so vague but those sort of progs really do wind me up!

I was type2 for about 9 years. I then went on a diet, not low carb especially, and lost 5 1/2 stones. My need for medication reduced along with the weight loss until I was given the all clear last Sep and I am now meds free.

Do you want to get the book because you have weight to lose, or do you think fasting helps the body in some way? I am not sure if I have reversed diabetes, what I have done is stop my need for medication to treat it. My body can produce enough (insulin? still ignorant here) to cope with a fairly normal, but lower carb, diet. I have about 150g of carbs per day and still low fat until I learn more. I am now eating a 'diet' that I know I feel happy with for the rest of my life. Ordinary everyday foods in smaller amounts and favouring lower carb but not low carb. Hope this helps.
Lee.
 
Hi Lee,

Thanks for taking the time to come back to me on this. First of all well done with controlling your diabetes, sounds like a great success.

For me I just need to lose more weight and keep it down. As I said I swim, cycle and walk and do eat well but my issue is reducing my BMi. It's happening slowly but looking for ways to increase my weight loss.

I'm not on any medication at present and I'm doing everything to stay away from them.

The last twelve months have been difficult to come to terms with diabetes for me hence why i've purchased this book and will try what he's put in it to reverse my diabetes.

Regards
Rob
 
Hi Rob,

It's important to keep the two issues of diabetes weight loss separate, although they are closely linked. Any weight loss, and especially combined with controlling carbohydrate intake, will lower BG levels in most, but not all, type 2 diabetics. To reverse diabetes however requires more weight loss than just that. Taylor writes:

"The extent of weight loss required to reverse type 2 diabetes is much greater than conventionally advised. A clear distinction must be made between weight loss that improves glucose control but leaves blood glucose levels abnormal and weight loss of sufficient degree to normalize pancreatic function."

It does not have to be a crash diet:

"The essential point is that substantial weight loss must be achieved. The time course of weight loss is much less important."

"It is also very important to emphasise that sustainability of weight loss is the most important thing to ensure that diabetes stays away after the initial weight loss. Previous research has shown that steady weight loss over a 5 – 6 month period is more likely to be successful in keeping weight down in the long term. For this reason, I would not recommend a very low calorie diet initially for most people with type 2 diabetes."

"The role of physical activity must be considered. Increased levels of daily activity bring about decreases in liver fat stores and a single bout of exercise substantially decreases both de novo lipogenesis and plasma VLDL. Several studies demonstrated that calorie control combined with exercise is much more successful than calorie restriction alone."

The problem is that none of us know what the state of our beta cell mass is. Some of it recovers function, some of it remains useless, but we don't know how much. Consequently, even if BG levels remain normal and even if eating a piece of cake doesn't cause a big spike anymore, it is best not to push things too far. We got it once and we can get it again except this time, we're likely to get it faster than before.
 
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