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SALT LAKE CITY — British researchers may have found a cure for Type 2 diabetes, but there’s a catch: You have to starve yourself for eight weeks.
“To have people free of diabetes after years with the condition is remarkable,” said Dr. Roy Taylor of Newcastle University who led the study.
The director of the Utah Diabetes Center said the study gives new hope to patients.
This is a radical change in understanding Type 2 diabetes, Taylor said in a written statement. “While it has long been believed that someone with Type 2 diabetes will always have the disease, and that it will steadily get worse, we have shown that we can reverse the condition.”
Diabetes is caused by a problem in the way the body makes or uses insulin. In people who have Type 2 diabetes, the most common form of the disease, the body doesn’t respond correctly to insulin. Most people with the disease are overweight.
Researchers studied 11 people who had developed diabetes later in life. They were between 35 and 65 years old and had a Body Mass Index between 25 and 45.
They were put on an extreme diet of just 600 calories a day, consisting of liquid diet drinks and non-starchy vegetables. For eight weeks, researchers tracked the insulin levels of the diabetics. After one week on the diet, the diabetics’ pre-breakfast blood sugar levels had returned to normal.
After eight weeks, their bodies regained the ability to make insulin, which means they essentially no longer had diabetes. They also had an average weight loss of 30 pounds.
The volunteers were then followed-up three months later. During this time they had returned to eating normally but had received advice on portion size and healthy eating. Of the 10 people re-tested, seven remained free of diabetes.
What (the study) is telling us is that if you can lose the fat in the wrong places, you may actually get restoration of organ function.
–Dr. Dale Abel
Dr. Dale Abel, director of the Utah Diabetes Center at the University of Utah, is not surprised by the results of the study. He said the center has known for a long time that obesity is a very important contributor to the risk of Type 2 diabetes, which accounts for 95 percent of all diabetes in the world.
As people gain weight, their tissues become resistant to insulin and their pancreas has to make more insulin to try to overcome that, Abel said. "But then what happens is that the pancreas sort of poops out after a while, fails."
“What (the study) is telling us is that if you can lose the fat in the wrong places, you may actually get restoration of organ function, in this case the pancreas,” Abel explained.
As dramatic as the results of the study are, if the patients regain the weight, Abel thinks the diabetes will return. He said the biggest challenge for diabetics who lose weight will be to maintain the weight loss.
"I think it gives hope to patients with obesity and diabetes that weight loss really does make a difference," Abel said. "The challenge is how do you actually make it happen."
Experts recommend that patients consult with a doctor before attempting such an extreme diet.
Story written by Nkoyo Iyamba and Viviane Vo-Duc.
