- Studies have shown that losing weight by reducing caloric intake can lead to remission of type 2 diabetes, including the return of blood glucose (sugar) levels to pre-diabetic levels in the absence of medication.
- A recent primary care-based cohort study showed that about 97% of patients with type 2 diabetes who adopted a low-carb diet experienced improvements in glycemic control.
- About 51% of people with type 2 diabetes achieved remission on the low-carb diet, with individuals who had been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes within the previous year more likely to achieve remission than those who had had diabetes for a longer period.
- These findings suggest that a low-carbohydrate diet could be a viable non-pharmacological option for achieving good glycemic control and possibly remission in people with type 2 diabetes.
A recent study published in Nutrition, Prevention and Health BMJ showed that a low-carbohydrate diet was effective in achieving glycemic control in people living with
What’s more, more than half of the participants who adopted a low-carb diet achieved remission of their type 2 diabetes, which means they were eventually able to stop taking their medications.
Study author Dr. David Unwinof Norwood Surgery, UK, he said Medical news today:
Incredibly, 77% of those who adopt a low-carb approach in their first year of life [type 2 diabetes] achieve forgiveness. This represents a really important ‘window of opportunity’ for further investigation.”
Dr. Ari EkmanEndocrinologist and medical director of Endocrinology Services at Holy Name Medical Center in Teaneck, N.J., who were not involved in this study, noted that the findings are “very important given the fact that many patients with type 2 diabetes want to eventually go off their medication.”
This article [in The BMJ journal] It provides a chart of the number of patients who have succeeded in controlling their diabetes through diet alone.” “It will be interesting in the future to see how this diet can be combined with our patients in controlling and managing diabetes.”
Individuals with type 2 diabetes show inadequate control of blood sugar levels due to the body’s inability to effectively use insulin and sugar absorption.
As a result, individuals with diabetes experience elevated blood sugar levels and
Hemoglobin A1c is a form of hemoglobin that is bound to glucose and reflects average blood sugar levels over the previous two to three months.
Moreover, type 2 diabetes is associated with a progressive decline in the ability to control blood glucose levels, requiring the use of a greater number of medications over time.
Traditionally, doctors considered type 2 diabetes to be an incurable, lifelong condition. However, recent research has shown that in the long term
This reduction in diabetes refers to a return to pre-diabetic HbA1c – less than 48 millimoles per mole (mmol/mol) or 6.5% – and blood glucose levels if the drugs have not been used for at least 3 months.
However, it should be noted that remission of diabetes does not mean that the condition is cured and blood sugar levels can return to normal sugar levels.
Although there are an increasing number of medications that can help control blood sugar, a large number of individuals show poor blood sugar control.
For example, recent estimates indicate that about 2 million Individuals in England are at increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
About 80-90% of individuals with type 2 diabetes are overweight or obesity. Studies have shown that weight loss resulting from bariatric surgery or through restricting calorie intake can lead to remission of type 2 diabetes.
Excessive energy intake
Studies show that reducing energy intake can lead to remission of type 2 diabetes Reducing fat levels in the liver improving the function of pancreatic beta cells.
Eating a healthy diet can help individuals with type 2 diabetes achieve remission, but there is conflicting evidence about the effectiveness of different diets. One dietary method for losing weight involves reducing your carbohydrate intake.
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Specifically, such a diet involves limiting the intake of carbohydrates such as bread, rice, and potatoes while encouraging the intake of leafy green vegetables, fish, meat, nuts, and fruits.
There is evidence of
Besides improving pancreatic beta cell function and decreasing fat accumulation, a low-carb diet can also help achieve sustainable weight loss by reducing hunger and increasing energy expenditure.
This is important because preventing weight loss from returning is one of the biggest challenges for individuals with type 2 diabetes.
However, there is also studies suggest that carbohydrate intake may not be a factor in controlling blood glucose in people with type 2 diabetes. Furthermore, there are also concerns that individuals may find it difficult to stick to a low-carb diet for longer periods.
In this study, the authors evaluated clinical data collected from a primary care clinic in the United Kingdom over the past eight years to further assess the ability of a low-carbohydrate diet to induce remission in patients with type 2 diabetes.
The study consisted of 186 patients in the clinic with type 2 diabetes who chose a low carbohydrate approach to diabetes management over a median follow-up period of 33 months.
During routine visits during the follow-up period, physicians gave patients advice on maintaining a low-carbohydrate diet and shared information on how this diet could help achieve better blood glucose control.
Doctors also advised patients on how to recognize and avoid trigger foods, highly palatable foods that lead to overeating. In addition to individual counseling, patients also had the option of attending group sessions to gain practical knowledge about selecting and preparing low-carb foods.
The authors found that patients with type 2 diabetes who chose the low-carb approach showed an average decrease in blood sugar body weight About 10 kilograms (22 lbs).
Furthermore, about 97% of the patients on the low-carbohydrate diet showed a significant decrease in HbA1c levels during the follow-up period.
In addition, patients who followed a low-carbohydrate diet also showed fewer signs of cardiovascular disease at the end of the follow-up period.
Specifically, patients showed a significant decrease in mean blood pressureand triglyceride levels and
In the full cohort of 186 individuals, 94 patients (51%) showed sustained remission, achieving HbA1c levels below the remission threshold of 48 mmol/mol for more than 3 months.
Patients who achieved weight remission showed greater weight loss than those who did not have remission. In addition, all patients who achieved sustained remission of diabetes showed at least some weight loss.
Although individuals with higher HbA1c levels at the start of the low-carb diet showed a greater decrease in HbA1c levels, patients with lower HbA1c levels were more likely to achieve remission. This was likely due to the more recent diagnosis of diabetes in patients having a low HbA1c at the start of the diet.
Consistent with this, further analyzes revealed that 77% of patients who followed a low-carbohydrate diet during the first year after diagnosis of type 2 diabetes achieved remission.
In contrast, 35% and 20% of patients who followed a low-carbohydrate diet between 1–5 years and more than 15 years after their diabetes diagnosis, respectively, achieved remission.
Although a smaller proportion of patients with type 2 diabetes of longer duration achieved remission, these results suggest that a low-carbohydrate diet can help achieve clinically significant improvements in glycemic control in these patients. Patients with type 2 diabetes that is not well controlled.
The study authors acknowledge that medications may also be necessary to manage longer-term type 2 diabetes.
Although other studies have also examined the effectiveness of a low-carb diet for achieving glycemic control, most have failed to achieve similar levels of weight loss. The authors attributed these differences to patient and physician trust, open discussion of the benefits of weight loss for long-term health, and ongoing support.
For example, doctors regularly monitored patients’ weight and HbA1c levels and provided reminders by phone when these parameters increased. This was generally due to an increase in carbohydrate intake, and the phone call was enough to ensure adherence to the low-carb diet.
The study also found that the clinic spends half as much on diabetes medication per patient as compared to other local practices.
Dr Unwin noted: “People who stay long term [type 2 diabetes], which may be poorly controlled, could benefit from careful consideration of reducing sugar and starchy carbohydrates, and often, they may not need expensive medication. Our practice saves £68,000 [approximately $80,637] each year on our diabetes drug budget in part because of that.”
Dr. David CutlerHe said, MD, a family medicine physician at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, Calif., who was not involved in this study MNT that[p]Physicians who have been discouraged from pursuing nutritional therapy vigorously with their patients because very few adherents to these regimens may be more enthusiastic about encouraging their patients to pursue nutritional therapy even if they are reluctant at first.”
The authors note that there is a risk of bias because only patients who were motivated to improve their health chose to follow a low-carbohydrate diet. Moreover, only 186 of the 473 patients with type 2 diabetes chose to follow a low-carb diet, indicating an unwillingness to follow such a diet.
Dr Cutler said: “It is very difficult to convince patients to follow a low-carb weight loss program for a long enough period of time to achieve significant health benefits. […] The degree of improvement here, with more than half of the patients being treated for their diabetes, could be enough to encourage some who might have been reluctant to follow such a diet to do so.”
The study was also of an observational nature and lacked a control group. Dr.. Srujana YadaThe board-certified endocrinologist at Texas Diabetes and Endocrinology in Austin, Texas, noted that the lack of a control or comparison group precluded any conclusion about the superiority of the low-carb diet over other diets.
Dr Yada said: “HbA1c improved significantly in both the calm and non-calm groups with improvements in cholesterol and blood pressure as well. This would make me recommend a low carb diet. But this study can’t say whether a low-carb diet is better. “
“But I would like to compare it to other diets with the same number Calories. Is it a change in diet type or a decrease in total calorie intake that results in an improved HbA1c? There is no mention of lack of blood sugar Events of interest to patients on a low-carbohydrate diet. I would like to know if the decrease in HbA1c is not due to unwanted hypoglycemic events,” Dr. Yada added.