Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works, Hey, brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: Lauren Vogel bomb here. If you've been diagnosed with diabetes,
Speaker 1: no doubt you've been told to change your eating habits
Speaker 1: more veggies, fewer sweets, and to get more exercise. These
Speaker 1: actions were thought to control your diabetes, but not to
Speaker 1: reverse it, but a paper published in the b m
Speaker 1: J says the type two diabetes is indeed reversible for
Speaker 1: many patients who lose around fifteen kilograms or thirty three pounds.
Speaker 1: Diabetes is a chronic condition that has been rising rapidly
Speaker 1: throughout the world. It affected eight point five percent of
Speaker 1: the world's population, about four hundred and twenty two million people,
Speaker 1: up from four point seven percent in the most common
Speaker 1: form of diabetes is type two diabetes, also known as
Speaker 1: adult onset diabetes. It occurs when the body doesn't effectively
Speaker 1: use the insulin it produces. Insulin being the hormone that
Speaker 1: regulates blood sugar. If your blood sugar level is too
Speaker 1: high and is not treated, it can lead to severe
Speaker 1: problems like blindness, stroke, kidney failure, and foot amputations. Type
Speaker 1: two diabetes is almost always directly tied to physical inactivity
Speaker 1: and extra body weight. We spoke with paper co author
Speaker 1: ROYD Taylor, Professor of Medicine and Metabolism at Newcastle University,
Speaker 1: via email. The belief amongst doctors and scientists is that
Speaker 1: type two diabetes is irreversible, always get steadily worse, demanding
Speaker 1: more and more drugs than insulin. Patient groups advised that
Speaker 1: the first step for someone newly diagnosed is to get
Speaker 1: used to the idea of dealing with a lifelong illness.
Speaker 1: His research is the latest chapter in year's worth of
Speaker 1: investigation about type two diabetes. In two thousand and six,
Speaker 1: he noticed that liver function tests done in patients were
Speaker 1: usually abnormal or on the high side. Then he saw
Speaker 1: research that patients who had undergone bariatric surgery enjoyed normal
Speaker 1: fasting glucose levels within one week of the operation. He said,
Speaker 1: although it became widely believed that this was an effect
Speaker 1: of special hormones produced by the gut, it was clear
Speaker 1: to me that it simply be the sharp decrease in
Speaker 1: food intake. I published a hypothesis, the twin cycle hypothesis,
Speaker 1: suggesting how everything might be explained by too much fat
Speaker 1: in the liver and pancreas. Then set about testing that hypothesis.
Speaker 1: His hunch was proved inn and after that the group
Speaker 1: conducted a larger study to find out if those benefits
Speaker 1: continued long term. The scientists were pleased to discover that
Speaker 1: remission does stay constant after a return to normal eating,
Speaker 1: provided that these subjects maintain a steady weight. Unfortunately, a
Speaker 1: lot of patients and doctors haven't cluded into this finding
Speaker 1: that diabetes can go into remission. The b MJ paper
Speaker 1: was actually written to draw more attention to the reversibility
Speaker 1: of the condition and to incentivize everyone to strive for remission.
Speaker 1: Taylor said remission is a great advantage to people with
Speaker 1: type two diabetes. Although many are content to continue taking
Speaker 1: the tablets or insulin and risk loss of eyesight, feet, etcetera,
Speaker 1: there are large numbers desperate to escape from type two diabetes.
Speaker 1: The author's call for to record patients who have gone
Speaker 1: into remission, Taylor said, in the UK National Health Service
Speaker 1: there is a special coding category to describe diabetes in remission.
Speaker 1: It allows physicians to still be paid, ex sufferers to
Speaker 1: not have to call themselves diabetic, and annual checks to
Speaker 1: be done to help motivation to keep weight steady to
Speaker 1: achieve remission diabetes type two patients must get their hemoglobin
Speaker 1: A one c blood level to normal levels for one
Speaker 1: year without assistance from diabetes medication. On its website, the
Speaker 1: American Diabetes Association notes that it's very rare for patients
Speaker 1: diabetes to go into remission unless they've had bariatric surgery. However,
Speaker 1: the European diabetes forum diabetes dot co dot uk is
Speaker 1: more up beat, stating that low carb diets like the
Speaker 1: Mediterranean diet and commitment to exercise, as well as bariatric
Speaker 1: surgery have all helped some people with diabetes to achieve remission.
Speaker 1: If you or someone you know is living with type
Speaker 1: two diabetes, consider talking to a doctor about steps to
Speaker 1: take toward remission. Today's episode was written by Alia Hoyt
Speaker 1: and produced by Tyler Clang. For more on this and
Speaker 1: lots of other healthy topics, visit our home planet, how
Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com