Quality Health Tells People Their Type 2 Diabetes Will Go Away If They Lose Weight

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An Open Letter.


Dear Quality Health,

I am extremely angry and disappointed in your most recent newsletter suggesting to patients that if only they lose their excess weight, their Type 2 Diabetes doesn't have to be a life sentence, and that it can go away. I am not quite sure in what universe you are living in, but in my universe, a cure has not yet been found for Type 2 Diabetes. Perhaps you are thinking of Gestational Diabetes? Or Pre-Diabetes? Once a full blown Diabetic, ALWAYS a Diabetic.

The idea of giving someone the hope that one day, when they reach their goal weight, they will no longer have Diabetes, or no longer need to manage their Diabetes, is unconscionable to me. Is this somehow, going to bring me back my dead father? Who was a Type 2 Diabetic, who became extremely fit, at 5'8", and 140 lbs? His Diabetes never left... It only degenerated with time.

Furthermore, the idea of telling people if they get gastric bypass surgery, that their Type 2 Diabetes will go away, is also insane. Recent research has only suggested that for SOME people, not all... their diabetes went into REMISSION... And they stress the word REMISSION -- not cure. Scientists are still unsure what, entirely, about gastric bypass is making some of the patients have their Type 2 go into remission, not only because it didn't happen for all the patients, but also because it is obvious to them that weight loss alone, does NOT make Diabetes 'go away,' as you so succinctly put it in your article... and as it hasn't gone away, for so many people.

Diabetics (Type 1 and Type 2) have to struggle so much, day in and day out, with the huge amount of ignorance out there, and misinformation, only to be fed even more ignorance by so called "educational" organizations... like your own. Please, please, inform yourselves better, and remove this article from your newsletter, issue an apology, and proper clarifications where needed.

Sincerely,

All People with Type 2 Diabetes.

http://bit.ly/9EHkf8 Yeah right!
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I’m sorry about your dad. Hopefully, your direct and first hand knowledge of reality will sink in, but many skulls are very thick. Thanks for trying to straighten them out.

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There are a lot of poopheads out there

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I agree with you and I agree with health professionals that say diet and excercise can help out. I think if we can catch things early enough then we may prevent people or kids from getting diabetes and weight related problems. I am a firm believer that diet and excercise can help a person with diabetes live a long life with minimal complications. To say that its all false is not right either. We slam the “medical experts” but they do have a point. We need to get our kids moving specially if we know that we have the gene in us to cause some problems. I will take any advice from anyone to prevent things for my son.

Once you have kids things change and you listen to anyone who may have something worth while to say. I accept that I will never be “cured” but I need to be around long enough to teach my son to live a healthy life with suggestions from “medical experts” on diet ane excercise.

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This article is not about prevention at all, Wil. The article is about telling people that once they lose weight, their Diabetes will go away… and it doesn’t address Gestational, or Pre-Diabetes… It’s an article telling Type 2 people that their Diabetes is going to go away, if they lose weight, and that’s wrong, and incorrect. Preaching prevention, and control is one thing… Telling people their weight loss is going to cure them from their established Type 2 Diabetes, is another.

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Three cheers for you Lizmari!!! I’d give you a big hug if you were closer. As you know my best friend is having bypass surgery later this month, and her doc believes that this article is 150% correct, and has told her she will be “cured” of diabetes after her surgery. Unless they are removing her pancreas, which they are NOT…she is not going to be cured, and even if they did, she wouldn’t be cured. But she is hindging her whole life on that fact. Diabetes is her biggest fear, even over death. She is in 100% denial about her “D” and won’t do anything about it.

Thanks for sharing the article. You can bet I will send them a letter much like yours.

Cathy J

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So my question would be then to define what is “going away” mean to researchers and doctors. Progress cannot be made without trial and error. It sucks we are the lab rats though. If a person can achieve an a1c of a non-diabetic would that be considered as “gone away” and if they can sustain that A1C for an indefinite amount of time then would that be “gone away”.

Before I dimiss anything I like to read the studies behind what was reported. I really do not believe what is written in magazines or newspapers by reporters who are not medical doctors or researchers. It would be good if a study could be seen on a1c levels of people of gastric bypass and the impact on diabetes related conditions. My biggest come back to anyone telling us about a cure is show me some proof behind what has been stated and concrete evidence in a massive study. To me that carries more substance when you can back that up.

So I like to hear from an actual person who had this procedure and see the impact on diabetes and how long the a1c levels of a non-diabetic have been mainatined.

I an a cautious optimist but would like to see if anyone had success with it and for how long.

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As far as I can tell, Wil, they don’t even quote any studies… Just some doctor’s opinions, and well… but, we’ve read on here just how much many doctors are completely misinformed about Diabetes… My own doctor really doesn’t know squat. You are right in the “what makes them define ‘going away.’” The problem is WE are educated enough in to understanding that they might not mean “Oh, I can eat 2 slices of pizza, again, and my blood sugar won’t shoot past 200.” This is an article for the general public, and quite frankly, people are going to read that as “cured.” Someone telling “your Diabetes will go away when you lose weight,” sounds completely to me like someone saying “your Diabetes will be cured.” There is absolutely NO scientific studies or evidence being quoted to tell people “if you lose weight, your Diabetes will go away,” and the findings of a recent study on gastric bypass are practically mangled in this article, by glossing over all the little details that it hasn’t been found to be weightloss alone, that has helped some people, and that it didn’t work for everyone… They simply make it sound like it’s awesome, and most everyone got at least SOME result, because ‘weight loss makes Diabetes go away,’ whatever the heck that means. They don’t even have citations for that… There is nothing to be optimistic in this article… It’s mostly lies, and exaggeration. If you want to write them a letter, with how your biggest come back would be, feel free.