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Self-healing effect also works for type II diabetes
More and more Germans are suffering from diabetes. In this country almost seven million people now live with the so-called diabetes. A new study now suggests that diabetes can be reversed by a healthier lifestyle.
More and more people with diabetes
The number of diabetes patients continues to increase. One of the reasons for this is the increasing frequency of overweight and obesity. But the increasing age of society also plays a role. Canadian scientists now report that the type 2 diabetes, also called "geriatric sugar", can be reversed, at least temporarily. And through a healthier lifestyle.
The results of a recent study suggest that type 2 diabetes can be reversed in some patients. A healthier lifestyle plays a prominent role. (Image: Andrey Popov / fotolia.com) Undo diabetes
Diabetics are usually advised to eat healthily, lose weight if necessary, and exercise regularly to lower their blood sugar. However, the majority of diabetics have to inject insulin regularly because their body no longer produces this hormone.
In recent years, however, there have always been scientific studies suggesting that it may be possible to reverse diabetes.
For example, American doctors reported years ago about a diabetic woman who, after a new treatment method, independently produces insulin again.
And British scientists found in one study that diabetics can normalize their insulin levels by losing weight.
Healthier lifestyle for diabetes
That a lifestyle change is associated with great benefits for diabetics, now shows a recent study from Canada.
A message from the McMaster University Department of Medicine's Ontario Department of Medicine reports that it may be possible to reverse type 2 diabetes in some patients.
"After an intensive 2-4 month treatment with a combination of oral medications, insulin, and lifestyle therapies, we found that up to 40 percent of participants did not need diabetes medication for months after they discontinued," said lead author Dr , Natalia McInnes.
"The findings suggest that type 2 diabetes could, at least in the short term, be reversed with medical approaches."
The results of the pilot study were published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.
Personalized exercise and nutrition plan
To arrive at their results, the scientists divided the 83 subjects into three study groups.
The participants in the first group received a personalized exercise and nutritional plan, oral medications, and insulin over an eight-week course of frequent coaching. The second group received the same program for 16 weeks and the third group a standard treatment for diabetes.
Following this, participants stopped taking diabetes medications and were encouraged to continue with lifestyle changes.
Disease symptoms partially disappeared completely
Three months later, eleven out of 27 subjects in the 16-week program showed complete or partial diabetes remission. In the 8-week group this was the case in six out of 28 persons and in the control group in four out of 28 participants.
The idea of reversing diabetes "motivates sufferers to make significant lifestyle changes," says McInnes.
Dr. Hertzel Gerstein of McMaster University explained what remedies were used: "We chose to use metformin, acarbose, and insulin glargine in this study because these drugs have all shown to slow or prevent the development of type 2 diabetes . "
"However, other drug combinations could lead to higher remission rates and therefore need to be systematically investigated for this outcome." (Ad)