Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works, Hey, brain Stuff, Lauren Vogel bomb here. If you've been diagnosed with diabetes, no doubt you've been told to change your eating habits more veggies, fewer sweets, and to get more exercise. These actions were thought to control your diabetes, but not to reverse it, but a paper published in the b m J says the type two diabetes is indeed reversible for many patients who lose around fifteen kilograms or thirty three pounds.
Diabetes is a chronic condition that has been rising rapidly throughout the world. It affected eight point five percent of the world's population, about four hundred and twenty two million people, up from four point seven percent in the most common form of diabetes is type two diabetes, also known as adult onset diabetes. It occurs when the body doesn't effectively use the insulin it produces. Insulin being the hormone that
regulates blood sugar. If your blood sugar level is too high and is not treated, it can lead to severe problems like blindness, stroke, kidney failure, and foot amputations. Type two diabetes is almost always directly tied to physical inactivity and extra body weight. We spoke with paper co author ROYD Taylor, Professor of Medicine and Metabolism at Newcastle University,
via email. The belief amongst doctors and scientists is that type two diabetes is irreversible, always get steadily worse, demanding more and more drugs than insulin. Patient groups advised that the first step for someone newly diagnosed is to get used to the idea of dealing with a lifelong illness. His research is the latest chapter in year's worth of investigation about type two diabetes. In two thousand and six, he noticed that liver function tests done in patients were
usually abnormal or on the high side. Then he saw research that patients who had undergone bariatric surgery enjoyed normal fasting glucose levels within one week of the operation. He said, although it became widely believed that this was an effect of special hormones produced by the gut, it was clear to me that it simply be the sharp decrease in food intake. I published a hypothesis, the twin cycle hypothesis, suggesting how everything might be explained by too much fat
in the liver and pancreas. Then set about testing that hypothesis. His hunch was proved inn and after that the group conducted a larger study to find out if those benefits continued long term. The scientists were pleased to discover that remission does stay constant after a return to normal eating, provided that these subjects maintain a steady weight. Unfortunately, a lot of patients and doctors haven't cluded into this finding
that diabetes can go into remission. The b MJ paper was actually written to draw more attention to the reversibility of the condition and to incentivize everyone to strive for remission. Taylor said remission is a great advantage to people with type two diabetes. Although many are content to continue taking the tablets or insulin and risk loss of eyesight, feet, etcetera, there are large numbers desperate to escape from type two diabetes.
The author's call for to record patients who have gone into remission, Taylor said, in the UK National Health Service there is a special coding category to describe diabetes in remission. It allows physicians to still be paid, ex sufferers to not have to call themselves diabetic, and annual checks to be done to help motivation to keep weight steady to achieve remission diabetes type two patients must get their hemoglobin A one c blood level to normal levels for one
year without assistance from diabetes medication. On its website, the American Diabetes Association notes that it's very rare for patients diabetes to go into remission unless they've had bariatric surgery. However, the European diabetes forum diabetes dot co dot uk is more up beat, stating that low carb diets like the Mediterranean diet and commitment to exercise, as well as bariatric surgery have all helped some people with diabetes to achieve remission.
If you or someone you know is living with type two diabetes, consider talking to a doctor about steps to take toward remission. Today's episode was written by Alia Hoyt and produced by Tyler Clang. For more on this and lots of other healthy topics, visit our home planet, how Stuff Works dot com