
Curing Diabetes with a Low Carb Diet - abishekk92
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidshaywitz/2017/03/08/can-silicon-valley-cure-diabetes-with-low-carbs-and-high-tech/#7bbc7092190a
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llccbb
Type 2 diabetes is a lifestyle disease. Changes in lifestyle can reverse the
disease. Coupled with early intensive insulin treatment, exercise and diet is
__the known cure__ for T2. The current (pharmaceutical) standard of care in
America is to subject the patient's body to further stress at the expense of
vital organs.

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gumby
> Type 2 diabetes is a lifestyle disease. Changes in lifestyle can reverse the
> disease.

Not so fast cowboy. Yes, diet and exercise can contribute to the disease, but
some people can eat three doughnuts a day and not get DMT2, some get it
despite a healthy lifestyle (including, if you believe the article, the CEO of
this company, an ironman competitor).

And some of the damage is irreversible. Damage to pancreas, damage to
circulatory system, etc. So catching it early (why they screen for "pre
diabetes" and which is why the other company in the article went after pre
diabetic patients). Once the patient has been diagnosed with full blown
non-T1, then 100% reversal is probably not in the cards, simply a maintenance
regime. For most people that includes drugs.

I agree with you without reservation that it's clear that you're better off on
many dimensions by maintaining a healthy lifestyle, but like it or not (and I
don't like it) that's hard for most people to maintain for many many reasons.

Also, "diabetes" describes a symptom (essentially excessive urination with
sugar excreted in the urine"). Under "T2" (basically: anything which isn't
your immune system attacking your beta cells) are a cluster of diseases which
cause the same symptoms.

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bobosha
genetics plays a big part in type-2. I know several athletic types who have
type-2 (through inheritance)

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vlaak
I didn't read the story because of addblock but I've seen headlines like this
before. As someone with type 2 they always annoy me. I've been eating low carb
for a long time (sometimes more successfully than others) and while I can keep
my blood sugars under control with the diet, and hopefully keep my body from
further damage, I have not "cured" my diabetes. If I eat a high carb meal, my
blood sugar will shoot up way higher than that of a normal person. I still
have diabetes. Eating low carb is not curing me, but it is helping me keep
things under reasonable control.

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godshatter
I've recently been diagnosed with type 2 (a few months ago), and have noticed
significant benefit from a low carb diet, just as you state. I'm curious if
you've looked into intermittent fasting as a method of trying to reverse type
2 as well.

The general gist is that it gives your pancreas some "time off" from having to
manage blood sugar increases due to daily ingestion of food, hopefully
allowing it some time to "heal". I've started this and have noticed a small
bit of improvement in my blood glucose levels, both on the fasting day and for
a few days on the non-fasting days. I've been fasting one day in six.

I'm skeptical of this actually "reversing" the disease, but it does seem to
help my numbers, as well as helping me lose a small amount of weight. It also
reacquaints me with hunger, and makes it easier on the non-fasting days not to
succumb to non-hunger related eating cues, at least in my experience.

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vlaak
Interesting you mention the idea of fasting. I'm learning more about it now.
My roommate, who is not diabetic but interested in low-carb anyway, has been
investigating this for a while and has brought it to my attention. Any tool I
can add to the toolbox is worth considering.

