‘Curing’ or ‘Reversing’ Type 2 diabetes

[EnyainIkea]

Having a discussion with a friend who says she no longer has type 2 diabetes. She was diagnosed three years ago and prescribed meds and went about changing her diet. She now no longer eats pastry, bread, pasta, cakes, sweets, potatoes. She gave up alcohol and doesn’t have milk in her hot drinks. Her diet is basically fish, meat, eggs (lots!), cheese (lots) salad/veg with full-fat yoghurt as a treat with blueberries or strawberries. She has a little bit of dark chocolate now and again. She has lost loads of weight and has stopped her medication and says she’s ‘cured’. I am full of admiration at how she’s turned things round again.

However she got slightly annoyed when I said you haven’t ‘cured’ your diabetes, you’ve just found a way to manage it. The comparison I gave was someone with a nut allergy hasn’t ‘cured’ their allergy because they no longer have allergic reactions - the reason they don’t have allergic reactions is because they don’t expose themselves to the allergen. So she doesn’t have high blood sugars anymore but that’s because she’s not eating hardly any carbs ( other than those found in veg) If she ever has a piece of cake she feels exhausted afterwards and tests her blood sugars and they’re sky high - same if she has potatoes. That to me is not being ‘cured’. Her body’s system for managing glucose via the pancreas/insulin is still broken.

I didn’t diminish the amazing thing she’s done for her life - and she knows me well and knows I’m genuinely happy for what’s she’s achieved but I’m right aren’t I? I just feel it kind of minimises the seriousness of Type 2 diabetes to treat it like something that you can get and then get rid of and be completely cured.

YABU. She has reversed it in the same way that an op to cut something out would reverse it. She had it before, now she doesn't. And she definitely deserves all our respect for doing this, as it's hard work, but should give her years of healthy life.

Agree. She hasn't cured it but rather pushed it into remission. If she went back to eating carbs then her diabetes would return.

When my DM was diagnosed type 2, she went on a crazy strict diet that was vegetables and beans and literally nothing else. After a few months she gradually started reintroducing carbs and now she eats normally (ie. Still eats carbs but not to excess and has a generally healthy diet). Her diabetes has never returned. That was 11 years ago.

She hasn't cured it but rather pushed it into remission. If she went back to eating carbs then her diabetes would return.

I think it's something of a semantic difference in this case whether it's a 'cure' or 'remission' in this case. Unlike cancer, it's hopefully within her control whether she can stay free of diabetes.

I've just reversed mine but don't regard it as having completely gone away - still need to try to maintain normal blood sugar levels without medication.
I wonder if you needed to correct her though, and whether it was the manner of this that annoyed her. You say she tests her blood sugar etc, so perhaps leave her to work it out for herself, unless she's asking you for medical advice.

You are right. But, some people with type 2 have had amazing results from losing lots of weight and in so doing, losing fat cells that were within their pancreas and affecting its responses. I don't know whether the weight she's lost would have done this. She may find as she gets older, she starts to get a bit more insulin resistant and may need some meds just to handle the small amount of carbs she eats now.

Yes I suppose it is semantics at the end of the day. We’re good friends but she knows I can be in a pain in the arse sometimes 😂I’m also a very much glass half empty sort of person but must try not to project that onto others.

I reversed the effects of my type 2 diabetes in a similar way - but I am still diabetic, I just don't trigger it by eating the wrong stuff!

But I agree with a pp - there is no need to argue the point. It doesn't achieve anything other than to annoy your friend and is unlikely to be worth it....

I agree with you, she has found a way to control it rather than get rid of it. I have T2 and think of it in the same way you would think of someone having an addiction...once a type 2 diabetic always a type 2 diabetic.

Technically speaking, we would say she's put her diabetes into remission. Her diagnosis of diabetes remains, and she would still need the regular checks that people with diabetes have to ensure that her risk of complications is managed.

Type 2 diabetes is diagnosed when your HbA1c blood test gives you a blood sugar score of higher than 47. You can reduce that by changing your lifestyle (it is not just diet by the way - other factors are at play as well), and once your blood sugar levels are reduced below 47, you are no longer considered to be in that Type 2 category. That is what your friend has done, and she is correct in saying that she no longer has diabetes.

I'm in what they call the 'pre-diabetes' category of 42-47. My score was 43 and by changing my diet it went to 42 the last time I had a blood test, and if I continue to eat the right things, I will come out of that category altogether. So I have studied it a bit, you might say.

"Cured" is a subjective term with metabolic syndrome though isn't it, because it's not like recovering from a cold where you then get antibodies against the virus. Some people are more sensitive to glucose than others, so are less able to handle a high-carb diet. Obviously if your friend goes back to eating in the way that contributed the syndrome in the first place, she could become diabetic again, but staying in remission amounts to the same thing as being cured for someone with her metabolism.

The studies by Roy Taylor show that the pancreas takes a couple of years to recover from the effects of diabetes, so it may be that some people can gradually tolerate more carbs over time. Others maybe not, because their bodies metabolise food in different ways, for whatever reason.

I can't see that there's anything wrong with the way she's using the word, though. It's maybe not scientifically precise, but so what? It means the same thing in context.

Also, allergies do come and go in many cases, so that's not a straightforward comparison either. Metabolism is complicated.

I was told by my doctor and a Diabetic specialist that you can’t reverse Diabetes. You can go in to a remission where you are not having symptoms etc but you are still diabetic.

I’m interested in this and hearing others experiences
of reversing diabetes.

As someone who is in the pre diabetic range and has reduced it through exercise, understanding and learning what different foods do to my blood sugar both in the short term and longer term, I think your friend has gone to a lot of effort in learning her body and the effects foods have on her levels and if she has got them out of the diabetes and pre diabetes range and kept them out then well done to her and it doesn’t really matter what she calls it, her range is currently not diabetic and seems odd for the terminology used to be something you’re thinking about so much you made a post on it

Sounds like she’s worked hard to sort out her health, not sure why you’re determined to belittle that. Guessing you either don’t struggle with your own weight or don’t have the willpower to manage it like she has. Either way you don’t sound like a very nice friend 🙄

This is an old thread by the way! Reviving as I am trying to reverse my own diabetes.

Bump

Sounds like she's done amazing

I've completely reversed mine via Mounjaro.
By a hell of a lot.
My diabetic nursed did call it a cure.
🤷‍♀️

YABU

I reversed mine and am medically regarded as being in remission.

its gone. It might come back and I get annual checks but I’m no
more diabetic than you are.

That’s really encouraging to hear!

That’s an incredible achievement. Do you mind me asking - do you eat any carbs in your diet now? Are things like roast potatoes, a slice of wholewheat toast, a small piece of cake, a few spoons of beans/pulses part of your diet (not all of those in one day I hasten to add!)? Or are you eating a carb-restricted diet to keep your blood glucose levels in the same range as someone without a diagnosis of Type 2 diabetes?

I focus on protein, salad, green veg and fruit. I will eat rice, pulses and beans.

I tend to avoid bread, pasta, potatoes, cake. But not always. Especially roast potatoes. 🤣