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Type 2 diabetes cure, extreme diet

latimes.com

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Re: Type 2 diabetes cure, extreme diet

#41

Post by knowtheory »

To be clear, onset of type2 diabetes is tied in with weight and health.

My wife (who studied dietetics/food & nutrition) while at university volunteered for a pre-diabetes program whose sole purpose was to stress to people who were at high risk for developing type2 diabetes that they could stave off the effects of the disease by eating more healthily, and explaining how they could accomplish it.

The vastly important thing to stress here is that a reduction of the level of fat is the important part, not starving themselves. Presumably other forms of weight loss (as a means to better overall health) would have the same sorts of effects.

Starving one's self should not be taken as the first step that people should reach for, and even if people were to do so, they should make absolutely sure that they're still getting proper nutrition so that they are losing weight safely.

tl;dr: it's unhealthy to be morbidly obese. Your health improves if you stop being morbidly obese. That can include the effects of type 2 diabetes.

Re: Type 2 diabetes cure, extreme diet

#42

Post by niels_olson »

zacharypinter wrote: post #9
spontaneus wrote: post #3

Watch Food Matters on Netflix. A good diet can help cure many diseases.

Not to discredit (haven't had a chance to watch yet), but is there scientific evidence behind this?

> is there scientific evidence behind this?

Doc here. Yes. Literally acres of it (measuring the floor space occupied by the National Library of Medicine).

Eat real food, not to much, mostly plants. Two entrees at most US restaurants will feed a family of 4, with leftovers.

Re: Type 2 diabetes cure, extreme diet

#43

Post by niels_olson »

I did my surgical internship at a hospital with a substantial bariatrics service. Yes. Starvation will cure type 2 diabetes. Overnight. Roux-en-Y patients often have normal blood sugars by the time they're out of the OR. We would watch them for 48 hours and their blood sugar didn't go back up. When they came in for follow-up, still down. It works. Like a champ.

I would like to reply to more comments here, but it's past midnight and my battery is dying. Maybe more tomorrow.

But, yeah, in general, type 2 diabetes is almost universally a consequence of over-eating.

Re: Type 2 diabetes cure, extreme diet

#44

Post by FreeKill »

schiptsov wrote: post #38

There is a significant cultural difference in the matter of treating diseases between West and East. In the West people first use a drug (rather tons of them), then, if no progress was made, a medical assistance, then, changes in behavior as an inevitable consequence and a restricted diet as a last resort. In the East (Tibet, for example) people at fist use shifting to an appropriate diet and behavioral changes, then…

I wonder if that is a direct result of a more profit driven system in the west? There's no profit in good exercise and diet...

Re: Type 2 diabetes cure, extreme diet

#45

Post by vixen99 »

G3P wrote: post #5
rvanniekerk wrote: post #2

Diet can be used as a form of cure for nearly every disease that exist. So why not use it more often? Oh right, there is no money to be made...

I hate to rain on your parade, I do... But, you simply couldn't be further from the truth. Diet can only be considered a "cure" in an extremely small subset of all disease; and, furthermore, the word "cure" is practically never used to describe the effects of diet in any treatment scenario. It's true that there is no money to be made by Pharma, and that's why they aren't funding this study. My words may be harsh, but…

He goes over the top but so do you. Diet is a word usually reserved for a temporary alteration in the type and amount of food we eat. But of course it also refers to a permanent change in what we eat. The evidence that an evidence-supported diet in the latter sense (eating 'properly') can protect us to varying degrees from the onset of much disease is overwhelmingly supported by countless peer-reviewed studies.

Re: Type 2 diabetes cure, extreme diet

#46

Post by sliverstorm »

jokull wrote: post #35
frankus wrote: post #14

It would be interesting to see if a fat- and protein-sparing fast (i.e. Atkins diet) would work as well. Apparently it's much easier to eat a semi-starvation diet by eliminating nearly all carbohydrates than by simply cutting back calories in general.

Good point. Reversing type 2 diabetes comes when insulin sensitivity is gained back. For this to happen I believe a low carb diet should be enough, not a caloric restriction, but merely the elimination of foods that spike blood sugar. Would like to see clinical results of a strict Atkins / Paleo type diet for this group.

Did you actually read the article? The hypothesis has nothing to do with insulin itself, and everything to do with reducing fat deposits in the pancreas.

Re: Type 2 diabetes cure, extreme diet

#47

Post by watmough »

sliverstorm wrote: post #46
jokull wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good point. Reversing type 2 diabetes comes when insulin sensitivity is gained back. For this to happen I believe a low carb diet should be enough, not a caloric restriction, but merely the elimination of foods that spike blood sugar. Would like to see clinical results of a strict Atkins / Paleo type diet for this group.

Did you actually read the article? The hypothesis has nothing to do with insulin itself, and everything to do with reducing fat deposits in the pancreas.

As the article says, that was just a hypothesis. There's no mention of tracking insulin levels, only blood sugar. And what's more, type diabetes is described in the article as resistance to insulin.

I can think of at least one further hypothesis, which is that cutting out indigestible sugars, per Lustig, frees up the liver from the task of metabolizing fructose/sucrose etc., to respond correctly to insulin, allowing blood sugar to be regulated.

Re: Type 2 diabetes cure, extreme diet

#48

Post by delackner »

So much argument here with extreme positions and blanket absolute statements, I am a little surprised.

What you eat is inextricably linked to your body's proper functioning and, yes, risk for a variety of diseases.

Thinking just about calories is meaningless. A single calorie of glucose / fructose / fat / alcohol / gasoline are simply not at all the same. Even the same ingredients (those useless nutritional composition labels) affect the body totally differently depending on how they are structured.

1 gram of pureed corn for instance will burn very differently from 1 gram of steamed corn kernels, versus that same 1 gram, popped.

It is a massive failure of education that people are surprised to hear that eating poorly leads to increased risk of disease.

Arguing that diet has no effect on disease is like suggesting that you could just live on glucose, a multivitamin, and water. Try that for a week and your body will be in full-on war against you. Actually, please don't.

Re: Type 2 diabetes cure, extreme diet

#49

Post by carbocation »

niels_olson wrote: post #43

I did my surgical internship at a hospital with a substantial bariatrics service. Yes. Starvation will cure type 2 diabetes. Overnight. Roux-en-Y patients often have normal blood sugars by the time they're out of the OR. We would watch them for 48 hours and their blood sugar didn't go back up. When they came in for follow-up, still down. It works. Like a champ. I would like to reply to more comments here, but it's pa…

I came here to say the same thing. While on my bariatric surgery rotation, the attending surgeons all said much what you said above with regards to normalizing blood sugars. One of them felt that the majority of her patients normalized their blood sugars pre-op thanks to their preoperative fast...

Re: Type 2 diabetes cure, extreme diet

#50

Post by Klinky »

rvanniekerk wrote: post #15
zacharypinter wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to discredit (haven't had a chance to watch yet), but is there scientific evidence behind this?

Most people tend to discredit diet therapy because it's "not mainstream" or against the norm. Of course you don't see nearly as many "studies" on diet therapy as you do a typical medicine or pill, most scientists and doctors that practice alternative therapy are considered heretics (cooks, crazy people, etc) and banished from the "mainstream" portion of the medical world (the one with all the cash flow). Look up Dr.…

There is plenty of money to be made in quackology as well.
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