New Research Finds Diabetes Can Be Reversed

I have recently spent more time in drugs stores than I would like helping my sister on her journey through (and hopefully to the other side of) cancer. Rite Aid, CVS and Walgreens all had large diabetes sections offering support for a "diabetes lifestyle" -- glucose monitors, lancets, blood pressure cuffs, medications, supplements and pharmacy magazines heavily supported by pharmaceutical advertising. Patients are encouraged to get their eye check ups, monitor their blood pressure, track their blood sugars, have foot exams and see their doctor regularly for better management of their blood sugars -- all apparently sensible advice for diabetics.

But what if Type 2 diabetes could be completely reversed? What if it weren't, as we believe, an inexorable, progressive disease that has to be better "managed" by our health care system with better drugs, surgery and coordination of care? What if intensive lifestyle and dietary changes could completely reverse diabetes?

A ground breaking new study in Diabetologia proved that, indeed, Type 2 diabetes can be reversed through diet changes, and, the study showed, this can happen quickly: in one to eight weeks. That turns our perspective on diabetes upside down. Diabetes is not a one-way street.

We used to believe that once cells in your pancreas that make insulin (beta cells) poop out there was no reviving them and your only hope was more medication or insulin. We now know that is not so.

Continuing misconceptions about what causes diabetes and our unwillingness to embrace methods know to reverse it have lead to a catastrophic increase in the illness. Today one in four Americans over 60 years old has Type 2 diabetes. By 2020, one in two Americans will have pre-diabetes or diabetes. Tragically, physicians will miss the diagnosis for 90 percent with pre-diabetes or diabetes. (Below I tell you exactly what tests to ask your doctor to perform and how to interpret them).

From 1983 to 2008, world-wide diabetes incidence has increased seven-fold from 35 to 240 million. Remarkably, in just the past three years from 2008 to 2011, we have added another 110 million to the diabetes roll call. And increasingly small children as young as eight are being diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes (formerly called adult-onset diabetes). They are having strokes at 15 years old and needing cardiac bypasses at 25 year old. The economic burden of caring for these people with pre-diabetes and diabetes will be $3.5 trillion over 10 years.

If we have a known cure, a proven way to reverse this disease, shouldn't we be focused on implementing programs to scale this cure? Unfortunately despite this extraordinary new research, the findings will likely be pushed aside in favor of the latest greatest pill or surgical technique because behavior and lifestyle change is "hard." In fact, with the right conditions and support, lifestyle diet and lifestyle change is very achievable.

What did research show?

Reversing Diabetes: Can it Be Done in a Week?

The study, entitled Reversal of Type 2 diabetes: normalization of beta cell function in association with decrease pancreas and liver triglycerides, was exquisitely done. The bottom line: A dramatic diet change (protein shake, low glycemic load, plant-based low-calorie diet but no exercise) in diabetics reversed most features of diabetes within one week and all features by eight weeks. That's right, diabetes was reversed in one week. That's more powerful than any drug known to modern science.

We know from gastric bypass patients that with rapid changes in diet right after surgery, within just a few days, without significant weight loss, diabetes goes away -- fatty livers heal, cholesterol levels plummet. Some theorized it was because of changes in the stomach hormones related to the gastric surgery. Others, including the researchers of this new study surmised that maybe it was just the drastic change in diet. So they went about studying just the diet change without surgery.

They studied 11 people with diabetes and compared them to a control group. Through very sophisticated techniques including MRI imaging, they measured their blood sugar and insulin responses, cholesterol levels and fat in the pancreas and liver (some of the hallmarks of diabetes) before and after diet changes at one, four and eight weeks.

What they found was revolutionary. The beta cells -- the pancreas' insulin producing cells -- woke up, and the fat deposits in the pancreas and liver went away. Blood sugars normalized in just one week, triglycerides dropped in half in one week and reduced 10-fold in eight weeks. The body's cells became more insulin sensitive and essentially, in just eight weeks, all evidence of diabetes was gone and the diabetic patients looked just like the normal controls on all the testing.

While this may be surprising to most, it is something I see regularly in my medical practice. With focused, strategic, scientifically based nutritional intervention, combined with exercise, stress management and sugar and insulin balancing nutritional supplements, many of my patients completely reverse their diabetes. And the side effects -- more energy, better sleep, improved sexual function and weight loss -- are all good.

What most don't realize is that pre-diabetes and diabetes exist on a continuum and both dramatically increase the risk of heart attacks, stroke, cancer, infertility, sexual dysfunction, depression and dementia. You don't have to get diabetes to be at risk for all those problems. That is why it is so important to get your doctor to diagnose pre-diabetes early and implement an intensive lifestyle program to help you reserve it.

You may be at risk if you have extra belly fat, have a family history of diabetes, gestational diabetes, are in at risk ethnic group (Asian, Hispanic, African American, Native American, Middle Eastern), have high triglycerides (> 150 mg/dl) or a low HDL (< 50 mg/dl) or have high blood pressure.

If any of these apply to you or you have other cause for concern, here is what to do.

How to Reverse Your Diabetes

First, get your doctor to test the following:

1. A 75-gram glucose tolerance test measuring BOTH glucose and insulin fasting and one and two hours later. Your fasting blood sugar should be less than 100 mg/dl and your one and two hour sugar levels should be less than 130 mg/dl. Your fasting insulin should be less than 10, and your one and two hour levels should be less than 35.

2. Triglycerides should be less than 150 mg/dl and HDL (good cholesterol) should be over 50 mg/dl, and the triglyceride to HDL ratio should be less than four. These ranges are meaningful only if you are on no medication.

3. Newer cholesterol tests measure the size of your cholesterol particles and is very effective in diagnosing problems with pre-diabetes early. In fact, this is the only cholesterol test we should be performing.

And here's the program I use for my patients to reverse diabetes:

1. Eat a low glycemic load, high fiber, plant-based diet of vegetables, beans, nuts, limited whole grains, fruit and lean animal protein

2. Vigorous exercise (fast walking, running, biking, etc.) 30 minutes four to five times a week and strength training 20 minutes three times a week

3. Take a good multivitamin, fish oil, vitamin D and blood sugar and insulin balancing nutrients (including chromium and alpha lipoic acid)

Remember, pre-diabetes and diabetes is not a one way street and the solution is not at the bottom of a pill bottle or the end of an insulin syringe, it is at the end of your fork and in the shoes on your feet!

To learn more about the real causes of diabetes and how to reverse it, see www.drhyman.com.

Now I'd like to hear from you ...

Do you think diabetes can be reversed? If so, how?

What methods have you tried to gain control of your diabetes or weight gain? How have those methods worked for you?

Why do you think accessible, scalable, lifestyle solutions like these that actually reverse chronic illness are not more frequently prescribed in conventional doctor's offices? How can we change this?

Please share your thoughts by leaving a comment below.

To your good health,

Mark Hyman, MD

Mark Hyman, M.D. is a practicing physician, founder of The UltraWellness Center, a four-time New York Times bestselling author, and an international leader in the field of Functional Medicine. You can follow him on Twitter, connect with him on LinkedIn, watch his videos on YouTube, become a fan on Facebook, and subscribe to his newsletter.

 

 

 

Follow Mark Hyman, MD on Twitter: www.twitter.com/markhymanmd

Comments

[Lellie]

10:06 AM on 09/27/2011

My licensed-Naturopathic-Doctor-daughter has only been practising for 7 years, but already knows through actually cases that Type 2 Diabetes can be reversed through diet modification and exercise. Type 2 Diabetes is a concoction of the developed world. Just watch the movie "Forks over Knives".

The big difficulty is in getting people to change their eating and living habits, NOT in finding a way to "cure" this disease.

Of course those people who "sleep" with Big Pharma will battle this idea to the death.

[rodjard]

01:41 PM on 09/26/2011

A lot of magnesium and Iodine and the full spectrum of
B vitamins and essential amino acids and no sugar or
starchy fast burning carbs. The proper acid to alkalie balance
There you have it. You will detoxify the poisons in your body
circulayory and endocrine system. This is not a mystery,
but then if you do it, you won't need to have a reason to take
a bunch of prescription drugs to treat the symptoms rather than
cure yourself.

[NEllison]

10:41 AM on 09/17/2011

What is so hard to understand about eating a diet of nutritionally packed fresh foods? Why are Diabetes Walks and billions of dollars in research spent to figure out what everyone already knows.

"Eat your vegetables" - Everyone's Mom

"If man made it, don't eat it" - Jack Lalanne

Do we really need studies to know that stress is bad, the commercial farming techniques we use produce poor food, that we eat and drink WAY too much sugar, that most of us don't get enough nutrients in our diet?

The body is designed to function optimally under the right circumstances. It's no big mystery that most people do not provide their bodies with the right circumstances. Some of this is a matter of personal responsibility and some of it is a shared responsibility.

Let's stop waiting for someone else to figure it out or for a magic pill and start taking charge of our lives and demanding that the food we put in our bodies is grown in ways that promote health, instead of destroying health.

[LSVentures]

09:46 PM on 09/07/2011

Diabetes can be reversed, entirely with diet modifications. This is actually old news, at least to those who have done low carbohydrate and Paleo diets. Diabetes is a disease of agriculture. It was totally unknown during the paleolithic era and before. There is archeological evidence from mummified Egyptian remains that they suffered from diabetes along with many other common diseases.

When you eliminate grains, starches, legumes and sugars from your diet, you eliminate diabetes and insulin resistance. If you are insulin resistant or already have diabetes this would include limiting fruits to the low sugar range, so no bananas, grapes, watermelons, etc. When you reduce or remove these foods from your diet, you also eliminate or greatly reduce the risk of getting heart disease, many autoimmune diseases, cancer and more.

For millions of years our ancestors ate animal proteins, green plants, roots, nuts and fruits. We've been agriculturalists for a relatively short period of time, on the evolutionary scale, only 6,000 - 12,000 years. We've only changed about 0.2% in that time. This change can explain why many people can consume some agricultural products an still be healthy but I suspect the vast majority of people cannot. And so we suffer for it.

[WTEffington]

06:42 PM on 09/05/2011

I would like to see follow-up studies that try to see the calorie cutoff for obtaining the same results, because 600 calories is really restrictive. And whether it was simple calorie restriction or elements of the diet that contributed to the effect, because I understand that Optifast is whey protein based, which studies have shown to have some of the effects attributed to this study, blood sugar control, reduced LDL, improved blood pressure, reduced fatty liver, etc.

[Raven1970]

04:05 PM on 08/30/2011

Yes, yes, yes! I know it can, I am not a doctor...just an observer, most of the girls I work with have pre-diabetes or diabetes, three have gotten gastric by-passes, one changed her diet, lost weight at a healthy rate and no longer has diabetes, one continued to eat total garbage...lost weight initially after surgery, but is back up and continues to need to see a diabetic Doctor, one just got the surgery, continues to eat garbage but can't keep it down, diabetes is gone, but she is so sick looking, I am actually very scared for her. The thought that after having endured a surgery like this (its nasty... fluids, throwing up and other gross side effects) and just going straight back to the way you ate before is baffling to me. Not to mention having to give yourself 100 units of insulin...and still two of them sit drinking soda all day, I don't get it.

[Hubert Daisley]

08:30 AM on 08/26/2011

This is an excellent study done by Lim, Hollingsworth, Aribisala, Chen, Mathers and Taylor. All diabetics should be informed of the role of acute dietary restriction of energy in the control of diabetes mellitus. This chronic disease has caused immense morbidity and mortality globally. It is about time that health care providers focus on controlling and eradicating diabetes mellitus. Thanks Mark Hyman, MD, for sharing this article with us.

[NEllison]

08:31 AM on 08/20/2011

One thing that can't be overlooked and is likely why improvement in diet works to a large extent is the role magnesium plays in sugar metabolism. Magnesium is increasingly one of the most common deficiencies due to poor diet, commercial farming techniques, stress of modern living, depletion caused by many common medications (including high blood pressure meds).

Magnesium levels are found to be low in diabetics. It is a co-factor in over 300 biochemical reactions in the body all of which are compromised with deficiency. It is a deficiency that is linked to insulin resistance, heart attack, obesity and a host of other medical problems.

http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/28/5/1175.long
http://www.mgwater.com/diabetes.shtml
The Magnesium Miracle by Carolyn Dean
The Magnesium Factor by Seelig

[DAEdison]

08:37 PM on 08/19/2011

Very interesting! I wonder why there are NEVER any critical comments on Dr Hyman's posts? I also wonder why EVERY post of his must include buying his diet or other products as part of the thesis. Thirdly, I wonder what deal with the devil HuffPo made to wind up being so doggedly protective: are we really not allowed to ask why we're reading advertisements masked as editorials?

[MaxineFox]

09:30 PM on 08/24/2011

Your comments are REALLY harsh and undeserved. While I agree that you don't have to buy special dietary supplements (a good multivitamin and mineral supplement wouldn't hurt) to reverse diabetes - you can reverse diabetes by just buying food at your local markets and farmer's markets and avoid buying certain other food - while I agree with that - I see so few medical doctors speaking out publicly on this issue, I for one would like to send Dr. Hyman very high praise for doing so - and please note that he also provides a link to the research article, not just his supplements. How many doctors do you see speaking out about pharmaceutical advertising in diabetes magazines and suggesting that diabetes doesn't have to be "progressive" (it doesn't as I am living proof of that)? How many medical doctors have you seen NOT suggesting prescription medications but instead a more natural way? Very few! So kudos to Dr. Hyman for doing so and kudos to Huffington Post for publishing it!

However, having said the above, I would like to encourage other diabetics that you don't need any special supplements - food itself is medicine - and you can cure diabetes with food and other natural means like exercise. I talk about this in detail on my personal blog linked below and I always love to hear from other diabetics wishing to reverse their diabetes and from those who already have.

Maxine Fox
http://reverse-diabetes-naturally.blogspot.com/

[DAEdison]

07:24 PM on 08/31/2011

With all due respect, there's nothing harsh about asking legitimate questions. I'm not asking about all other doctors everywhere, I'm asking about Dr. Hyman. I'm not questioning his advice, I'm questioning why his advice is partial and linked to a sales pitch. If that's 'REALLY harsh,' then I shudder to think how you'd respond to other questions that probe the thesis without actually challenging it. I can see by your link that you have a vested interest in this topic, which makes me wonder if you might not be a tiny bit biased. There's NOTHING wrong with certifying the validity of medical information one finds on the internet. ...Unless maybe your income depends on that information going unexamined? Dr Hyman's seems to...

[MommyMD]

02:29 AM on 08/19/2011

Mark is right. But sadly, this is no new news. Endocrinologists are quite familiar with a landmark trial demonstrating that lifestyle change (quite rigorous...for details refer to the American Diabetes Website) is superior to metformin (our first-line drug). I give my patients a "trial" of lifestyle change (which is the recommendation by the ADA), tell them that they are at grave risk, and see what happens. Some patients get with the program and reverse their disease process completely. Unfortunately, most do not.
Since I take my Oath seriously, I may then prescribe drugs to prevent complications and early deaths. Docs do not get any kickbacks from prescribing generic diabetes meds (metformin, ACE inhibitor, aspirin, generic sulfonylurea, and yes, even insulin). The epidemic of diabetes is a clearly a systemic world problem. Most docs get no pleasure (monetary or otherwise) from watching patients slowly kill themselves. We do like to help people get on the right track...perhaps with the help of a dietician and/or diabetes educator (we need more!) For my 11+ years of training, I like to follow more complicated diseases, not self-induced situations that can easily be handled by my wonderful RD and CDE colleagues (certainly not implying that all DM2 is self-induced). T
his epidemic will bankrupt our medical system, unless patients, government, food suppliers, etc. are committed to a ground-up approach. (Maybe get an army of well-trained educators/dieticians out there...could increase jobs as well!)

[ScienceGuyOrg]

04:59 PM on 08/16/2011

I found myself in ICU at 51 years old close to death, I was told I had type 1 diabetes and started on insulin. My readings continued to improve and I thought I must have type 2. I lost weight, exercised, and watched my diet. Over a year ago I quit taking insulin, my A1c 2 weeks ago was 5.0. I only have to test 3 times a week, but in doing that for over a year, never had a reading over normal range. It is not that hard to do.

[ScienceGuyOrg]

12:27 PM on 08/29/2011

Just to expand on this some, I found my tastes for food have changed and I prefer food that is not too spicy or sweet. I have expanded the types of vegetables I eat. It really doesn't bother me when other people are eating deserts and I bypass the desert. Eating salad twice a day has become a habit. I feel really good from what I eat, never have indigestion. My weight stays the same. So many benefits, it is worth giving up a few things. I do not hungry, but I eat no extra.

On the exercise, I try to get some everyday. Even if it is just walk around the block a couple of times. When I have more time I go for long walks up steep hills. Bike riding, kayaking, and cross-country skiing also.

I do not considered myself cured, but it has reversed. It was great to have a message on my answering machine that my lab results were fantastic after A1C.

If there was a magic cure for diabetes, I doubt I would change my diet much from what it is now.

[Ranveig Elvebakk]

04:20 PM on 08/16/2011

I have coached patients to reverse diabetes for 15 years, studied it, written and lectured about it. In fact, I have written a book called The Food Tree (Amazon 2008) showing step by step how to do it. The American Society of Bariatric Physicians was less than encouraging when I presented these news to them at their regional meeting in Los Angeles 2009. Interestingly, the information I presented is now showing up piecemeal in their publications ---
I also showed that diabetes medications are bad for us. That is not well received by the medico-pharmaceutical establishment either, but the truth will come out.
I will present this information again at Alta Bates Hospital in Berkeley, CA Grand Medical Rounds on Aug 23. Be there! If you cannot be there, you might want to read some of my writing.
Ranveig Elvebakk, MD Author of "The Food Tree" and "A New Disease Model" www.FoodTreeMD.com

[DannyHaszard]

03:50 PM on 08/15/2011

A report by Dr. Cooper at Vanderbilt University states that 2.5 million children are now taking atypical antipsychotics. Over half are being given them for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.
Use caution in treating children with powerful psyche drugs like Zyprexa,that can lead to life-long side effects like insulin resistant diabetes.

The use of powerful antipsychotic drugs has increased in children as young as three years old. Weight gain, increases in triglyceride levels and associated risks for diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
Eli Lilly also make billions on drugs that treat the diabetes often that has been caused by the Zyprexa!
-Daniel Haszard
http://www.zyprexa-victims.com

[Dianne Owens Tubbs]

07:53 PM on 08/12/2011

I was newly diagnosed with Diabetes 2. The doctor wanted to put me on medications, but I asked if I could try diet management and exercise first. I also changed my eating habits and exercise daily and have brought down my A1C level, along with my blood glucose readings. I have dropped about 20 pounds. I also have a kidney transplant, so the immunosuppression medications I take raise my blood sugar. But I am determine to fight this battle. Thanks for the good information and report!

[robertosanchez]

05:00 PM on 08/11/2011

This is a fascinating study. It's certainly true, diet alone can modify most diabetic profiles. Could the doctor community please prescribe a good diet and exercise? Between the shady FDA, drug companies and the doctor community, we are certainly in a difficult spot. Anyone with even a slight health problem is immediately prescribed a drug they may not need. According to this infographic, there are over 285 million people worldwide affected by diabetes! You heard that right, it's approximately 7% of the world population and the 5th leading cause of death. Factual Sources: http://www.actosinjurylawyers.com/infographic-diabetes-around-the-world/