Is a cure for diabetes possible? Regarding type 2 diabetes, doctors talk about the possibility of remission. Patients in remission have normal blood sugar levels without taking any diabetes medications.
What is Type 2 Diabetes?
Type 2 diabetes is defined as high blood sugar levels due to the body’s resistance to insulin. Insulin lowers blood sugar levels by helping blood sugar enter the body’s cells, turning it into energy. Due to reasons not fully understood, some patients develop insulin resistance: their pancreatic beta cells are still making insulin but to no avail. Factors such as obesity, high waist size, poor diet, lack of physical activity, smoking, family history, and air pollution can all raise the risk of type 2 diabetes.
What Can I Do to Reverse Type 2 Diabetes?
Fortunately, there is much that patients can do either to lower their risk of developing type 2 diabetes or even cure their diabetes. Body weight is an excellent place to start. While not a perfect marker, body mass index (BMI) assesses weight. BMI = weight in kg/height in cm squared.
Normal BMIs range from 18.5 to 24.9. Women’s and men’s waist sizes should be under 35 inches and under 40 inches (this may not apply to very athletic individuals).
Improve Your Diet
A good diet is rich in fruits and vegetables, beans, whole grains, and herbs and low in red and processed meats and processed foods, especially white flour and refined sugar. Research has shown that individuals eating diets high in vegetable protein have a lower risk of type 2 diabetes than those high in animal protein. Fruits and vegetables in various colors provide a variety of phytochemicals, or plant chemicals, recommended by nutritionists.
Working Out
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, United States, recommends that adults perform 150 minutes of aerobic exercise every week. This can be broken up into chunks of 30 minutes at a time, five days a week, or 75 minutes two days a week. Aerobic physical activity speeds up your heart and breathing.
The CDC recommends muscle training, such as lifting weights, working out with giant rubber bands, or performing push-ups twice a week.
Avoiding Smoking
Avoiding smoking and air pollution also lowers the risk of type 2 diabetes for reasons that will become clear with further research.
Please note that the above—while helpful to anyone—cannot help to cure type 1 diabetes.
Want to Put Your Type 2 Diabetes into Remission?
Our physicians can provide a plan for lifestyle changes to help you reach your goal. They can also prescribe all your diabetes medications online.
