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T2D Remission

J

JITR

Newbie
Where is the best place in these forums to discuss ways to achieve and maintain drug free T2D remission?
 
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AndBreathe said:
I would say in the T2 part of the forum, and you seem to be posting in it already. I would suggest a new thread with a suitable title to achieve best responses.
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Thank you. Just checking, so many forums, yet none about remission!!!
 
Hi there,

There are lots of posts about remission and how to achieve it on this forum, though if I can make a suggestion I would go straight to reading a couple of good books first if remission is your primary goal. I spent months reading up on the subject online and have achieved my Masters Degree in Remission, from Google University, but I only recently thought to try to identify the best books on the subject and read them.

I've read and highly recommend these two books.

'Life Without Diabetes' by Professor Roy Taylor
'How To Reverse Type 2 Diabetes and Prediabetes' by Dr. David Cavan

I chose these two books because they were both published recently, are focussed on remission, and refer to the latest research. If I had started by reading these books rather than reading it all online, piece by piece, I would have saved a lot of time. The authors recommend quite different approaches to achieving remission so there are things covered well in one book that are barely mentioned in the other, and vice versa. Taylor is a professor of medicine and diabetes researcher, and Cavan is a former consultant endocrinologist. Unlike most other books that are available, these two books are recent enough to cover remission in great detail and have been written by very experienced specialists - both authors are true diabetes experts.

If you read both books you will learn pretty much everything you need to know about exactly what remission is and how it might be possible to get there. Be aware though that both books 'dumb things down' a bit as they are intended to be readable by anyone. There will still be plenty to learn about diabetes after reading them but by reading both you will learn everything that is critical to achieving remission.

Very best of luck
 
JITR said:
Thank you. Just checking, so many forums, yet none about remission!!!
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Have you checked out the 'success stories' part of the forum?

I am a type 2 in remission. My doctor has changed my diagnosis to 'in remission'. Having said that I know that if I changed my diet the diagnosis would come back.
 
Hi, I've been in remission for a few years now. One thing to be cautious about is the word "remission" itself.

In the last couple of years the medics have settled on a formal definition of "remission" that I find unsatisfactory. Here's a link to the relevant paper:

https://diabetesjournals.org/care/a...ence-and-Characteristics-of-Remission-of-Type

So "remission" can now be declared after two sub-48 HbA1cs over three months apart. No inclusion of "normality" or absence of symptoms, etc. Under this definition I would still have been experiencing a full range of diabetic symptoms while officially in remission. Remission for all other diseases (in my experience) means "no symptoms".

Incidentally, the definition used by my GP when I achieved remission was different - one calendar year at normal blood glucose ranges without glucose lowering medication. It's considerably tougher, maybe too tough,but it does imply "normality".
 
Words are important to me. I prefer to say my diabetes is "well controlled" because if I went back to eating carbs/sugars, my body still could not manage them, and I would be back in the diabetes range. "Remission" by my definition means that the illness has gone away, and I would be non-diabetic if so. BUT that's my interpretation, and I am very literal. Others can see things differently, and it doesn't mean I am right and they are wrong - just a different point of view.
 
I agree entirely. I am either being a 'good' T2 with low hba1c or a 'bad' one with a high one... these are my choice of words that make sense in my head! As I got my hba1c out of diabetic range and then right out again, I don't like using the word remission. Particularly as it's mostly my fault if I go out of it again.
 
High numbers don’t necessarily mean anyone is a “bad” diabetic, sometimes no matter how hard someone tries they can’t get the control they desire. There are lots of reasons why numbers may be high other than the food you eat.
 
I am type 2, i will always be a type 2, for 4 years my Hba1c has been at non diabetic numbers. The only person i have seen regarding my diabetes who ever mentioned the word remission, was the nurse doing my eye test a couple of years ago. Remission to me is meaningless, i am a pretty reasonably controlled type 2, that is all that matters to me. if i eat too many carbs for my system to handle, my sugars rise too much. Not as much as they did 4 years ago, but that is just an improvement in Insulin resistance, due to abstinence, some thing that i know will alter if i abuse the carbs too much.
In my eyes Remission is simply GOOD CONTROL.
 
I know that, but for me that's my measure. It's said in quite a tongue in cheek way.
I have meds to help keep bg down but I can wilfully overrule them with my choice of food. Low carbs, low numbers, higher carbs, high numbers.
One of those is a bad choice, one is a good choice.
 
lovinglife said:
High numbers don’t necessarily mean anyone is a “bad” diabetic, sometimes no matter how hard someone tries they can’t get the control they desire. There are lots of reasons why numbers may be high other than the food you eat.
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Sorry - an extra post appeared between my last and the one I was commenting on!
 
Agree with many of the posts above. If I achieve another normal range hba1c in May, as I hope to, I'll be in remission. However, remission itself isn't my primary goal, it's a consequence of achieving my actual primary goals. For me, remission would be the confirmation that my approach, daily habits, diet and general BG management is working over a sustained period of time, not that I'm miraculously "healed" and can binge eat carbs again meal after meal.
 
For me, "remission", whatever it is, is definitely not equivalent in any way to "cure". "Remission" became a little bit more important for me in the early days because of the more widespread general opposition to managing T2 through low carb then: things have changed a lot in only a few years.

However I've still got a serious chronic condition that has no known cure and if I messed around with my diet I would expect to suffer the consequences.
 
I'm inclined to agree. The term remission, as used in medicine, is more accurate than talk of reversal, but well controlled is less likely to be misconstrued by family and friends, IMO.
 
That incidence and characteristics of remission article was bonzer - many thanks for posting it @KennyA . Always interesting to read the different interpretations of what basically amounts to health, and ill-health etc with type 2 going on. I particularly liked the phrase "intensive interventions". That's a good phrase for the alternative and much used, way-more-wan - "diet and exercise", or my pet bugbear - "lifestyle changes".
 
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