New Member posting for the first time a link to an article in the Daily Mail UK regarding the success GP’s in the UK are having reversing T2, which I hope will be encouraging. I have seen Utube videos about T2 being Carbohydrate Toxicity, which I found very encouraging as well. Growing army of doctors helping their patients REVERSE DIABETES | Daily Mail Online
There is a growing body of evidence out there to support this, it is just not mainstream and not supported yet by most physicians, dietitians, healthcare.
Thank you for your comment. As the article mentions this protocol is being fed by grass roots results from T2 diabetics. gaining results with people coming off of insulin solely from diet changes. This has to be encouraging.
There is actually nothing being reversed. You are just managing your diabetes by eating low carb, which a lot of us do. You can find plenty of discussions of both low carb as well as plant based diets by using the search bar on this forum that can be used to keep blood sugar within normal range, but make no mistake, as soon as you revert back to your original way of eating, your blood sugar will be back to where it started. These diets allow you to manage type2, not reverse it.
It does, however, make a very nice sound bite to market a product or service or clickbait for a news article.
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As someone who has bad reactions to diabetic medication, and some medication making the situation far worse, (xigduoXR10). Just 2 tablets took me from just above normal to full blown unstable diabetes where I now need insulin, and the insulin has created painful neuropathy, I am encouraged that medication can be removed with diet. Thought there may be others who could be encouraged by this article.Apologies if I repeated what is already known.
No apologies needed, we are all here to learn and share our experiences so you never know what might be a re-hash of an old topic, may be a lifesaver to a newcomer.
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It’s been a few years since the introduction of the term, “reverse,” into the lexicon of the discussion about using a low carb diet to normalize T2D blood glucose and then be able to take many of them off of all diabetes meds, including insulin.
At first I resented this use of language but this term has taken root. I would much prefer if they used the term, “remission,” instead. But now I look at the amazing results that efforts like those at Virta Health are getting and I soften my semantic criticism.
A well-formulated ketogenic diet has now been shown by many randomized controlled trials to help many people with T2D regain a normal glucose metabolism and also stop taking their diabetes meds.
This movement has been aggressively resisted by the mainstream medical community including their professional organizations. People like Dr. Richard Bernstein, T1D, author, and champion of using low carb to treat T1D, suffered much earlier in his career as peers sought to marginalize him and paint his methods as unsustainable. Now in his mid-80s, he has had the last laugh. The tide now seems to be turning.
Agreed. And when I’ve made this point at various conferences, the users of this term acknowledge that the meaning of the word, reverse, is limited to mean restoration of normal blood sugar levels and the withdrawal of all diabetes medications, sometimes after many years of use.
You must view this as an amazing success as the mainstream doctors have given up on this population, telling them that adding layers of new meds over time is the reality of T2D. They see this disease as progressive and unrelenting; they offer nothing to slow it down or stop it.
More informed thinking about type 2 diabetes has shown that this disease is better understood when looked at through the lens of hyperinsulinemia instead of hyperglycemia. It’s the over-production of insulin that creates insulin resistance. And it’s the over-consumption of processed carbs that creates too much insulin.
Hyperinsulinemia comes long before the glucose gets out of control. Doctors don’t measure insulin often and fail to become engaged until the glucose goes out of whack. They should be looking for abnormal levels of insulin but professional inertia deadens their curiosity.
Perhaps the proponents of this movement are over-reaching a bit with the semantics but I think they have done tremendous work and deserve a lot of credit.
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A few months ago I read about a study in Israel that found that when people had reduced their weight sufficiently, that the pancreas had started to reproduce insulin. I am hoping that viewing diabetes from a different perspective may open the way for all sorts of positive outcomes rather than “you have Diabetes and your leg is going to fall off” (not quite that, but I am sure you get what I mean.) all so negative and hopeless.
Having personally experienced more damage when prescribed medication, I applaud all views that can help achieve results and I feel that I am not walking into an ever decreasing tunnel but can be encouraged for the future.
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You are never going to change your genes. I know for me it is many generations. My endo said I would get it eventually . My sister is a year older than me,69, she is preD. She is skinny. I am overweight, look just like Gram. I weigh a lot less than she did,but 30 years of D still doing fine. I settle for remission,also. Nancy50
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Nope. Not ever, I’m afraid. However, I’ve been eating very low carb for a decade or two now and so far haven’t needed meds. I also believe that tomorrow or the day after I could very well need them. I call it the Diabolical Whimsy of this scourge.
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It’s no wonder that it can returns when one returns to the previous ingestion of the standard american diet of processed food, carbage and rancid seed oil. You mention “your original way of eating”, that’s the problem is our original way of eating.
I’ve seen people “reverse” or “cure” their T2, NASH by following a healthy, no processed, no sugar, no seed oil diet. I’ve also seen so many die from the complications of T2. It really is a global pandemic and to me even more highlighted in the presence of COVID.
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The article cited by the original poster mentions Dr. David Unwin, a UK general practitioner who has used a low carb way of eating to treat people with T2D. I was lucky to hear Dr. Unwin talk at a conference in Denver in March 2019.
He’s soft-spoken and passionate about looking after the welfare of his patients. Here’s an interview of him by Dr. Bret Scher.
Hi, @Judith_in_Portland! It’s good to read your comments once again.
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Hi @Judith_in_Portland , it is so good to see you. 
You have always been one of the shining lights that show what is possible with a low carb diet. Should you come to a point where you need the meds it will not be because you have not fought the good fight for many many years.
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Thoroughly enjoyed Dr Unwin’s interview and I have marked my calendar to watch each weekend alternately with the utube below to keep me focused. I managed T2 for 13 years with diet before my ‘anxious’ GP put me on those damaging and life changing xigduoXR10 diabetic meds which overnight and just 2 tabs put me into unstable diabetes.
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I read The Wheat Belly by Cardiologist Dr Wm Davies who explained that wheat had been GMO’d in the 1970 and in my opinion, this may have caused a lot of the problems we are having today.
I’ve been following Dr. Sarah Hallberg for a few years now. During her time as medical director of Virta Health, the evidence-based use of the low carb way of eating as a way to knock T2D into remission inspires me.
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Comments from the public at the base of Dr Hallberg’s utube is seriously inspiring. I am so grateful that these medical professionals have shared their positive results for patients and questioned the status quo. All we need is HOPE and a commitment to focus on correct body fuel, not processed Big Food. I believe that the body wants to heal itself, it just needs the correct building blocks to achieve it.
Many type 2’s who follow the guys at Mastering Diabetes have also been able to stop meds and insulin. They have learned to enjoy plant based carbs and exercise. It is like a miracle for them.
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The article was published in The Daily Mail. Please Google “is the daily mail reliable”. Draw your own conclusions.
Well, I did follow the low carb diet after reading Dr. Richard Bernstein’s book back in 2005. It made me go from 6.7 a1c to 5.7 initially and kept me around there to 6 for years, but then it began creeping up again. Maybe I was not strict enough, maybe I veered over my carb count too many times, I don’t know. But now I’m on insulin as of November 2020. I’m working on losing the weight I gained over COVID lockdown, wondering if having COVID changed something in my pancreas because it’s seemed harder for me since then to control blood sugar, but all in all, I’m still low carb for the most part and taking insulin. I hope by getting back to the basics, losing weight and getting better control will maybe eventually get me off insulin again, but I don’t know.
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