NHS: Can Type 2 Diabetics Heal Themselves?

The rapid rise in type 2 diabetes has reached epidemic proportions but a new study confirms that a strict low-calorie diet can reverse the condition and potentially save the struggling NHS billions of pounds.

Just eight weeks of restricting food consumption to 600 calories a day could save the lives of millions of sufferers of the preventable disease, easing pressure on the NHS and passing back to patients more responsibility for dealing with the condition themselves.

Professor Roy Taylor, of Newcastle University, who has spent almost four decades studying the condition, said it remained possible to reverse the condition for at least a decade after its onset.

Following a low-calorie diet for eight weeks to help bring about an average weight loss of 15 kilograms would have a dramatic effect, he said. The weight loss is now known to help reverse type 2 diabetes, which is often triggered by obesity.

“I think the real importance of this work is for the patients themselves,” Taylor said. “Many have described to me how embarking on the low-calorie diet has been the only option to prevent what they thought – or had been told – was an inevitable decline into further medication and further ill health because of their diabetes.”

The Newcastle team of scientists said the mos common cause of the diabetes – excess calories leading to a higher fat content in the liver – led the organ to produce too much glucose. The excess fat is then transferred to the pancreas, making the insulin-producing cells fail and causing the diabetes.

But their research has shown that losing less than one gram of fat from the pancreas can help re-start normal insulin production, reversing type 2 diabetes. “By studying the underlying mechanisms we have been able to demonstrate the simplicity of type 2 diabetes,” Taylor said.

Quick Results

The study showed positive results within just a week of patients starting the diet, with a profound fall in insulin sensitivity. Diabetics have high fasting levels of blood sugar but they became normal within the week.

Often thought of as largely harmless, type 2 diabetes is a hidden killer and can lead to heart failure, blindness, kidney disease, leg amputations and other medical complications.

Research suggests there are 380m sufferers worldwide. The number in Britain has topped 3.8m and is rising rapidly, with an average of 400 new sufferers diagnosed each day.  Diabetes costs the NHS more than £8b a year in direct and indirect treatment, and has been prioritised by the Government and the NHS as a target disease which could be reduced.

About 90% of British diabetics are type 2 and it has been estimated that type 2 diabetes can reduce life expectancy by up to a decade.

Taylor said the research should give hope to millions of sufferers. “The good news for people with type 2 diabetes is that our work shows that even if you have had the condition for 10 years, you are likely to be able to reverse it by moving that all important tiny amount of fat out of the pancreas,” he said. “At present, this can only be done through substantial weight loss.”

Experts welcomed the Newcastle research as “great findings,” which were presented at the European Association For The Study Of Diabetes in Lisbon.

Professor Kamlesh Khunti, of the Leicester Diabetes Centre, said it was “great research” but warned that major efforts would be required to help patients to take decisive action. “It shows that low-calorie diets can work in highly-motivated people however this would be difficult to implement widely for most people.”

Dr Elizabeth Robertson, the director of research at Diabetes UK, said the findings pointed to a new path ahead for treating the condition. “Evidence is building to suggest that Type 2 diabetes can be put into remission – a step forward that could be transformative for millions of people.”

 

by Bob Graham

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