ricafly wrote:Can diabetes type 2 be cured or reversed?
Sort of.
I disagree with KinneyPress on the "plant-based low fat", in fact that's basically the opposite of reality. (Also, I'm wondering if it's just a botpost to shill the Canadian pharmacy linked in that post.) The problem with any "plant-based" diet is that it is loaded with carbohydrates, and carbohydrates are what you have to stop eating if you are diabetic.
The three things needed are:
1. eliminate as much carbohydrates from your diet as possible;
2. exercise; and
3. lose weight.
If you do these things, AND if you've caught your slide over the diabetes cliff early, AND if you're lucky . . . you can effectively reverse it well enough to lead a relatively normal life, AS LONG AS you don't declare yourself "cured" and start chowing down on carbohydrates again.
The longer you've been diabetic, and the more insulin-resistant your body's cells become, the less likely it is that you can lower your insulin resistance to the point that you can function without insulin or other medications.
Diet-wise, you can call it "keto" or "atkins" or "paleo" or whatever else you want, but the goal is to reduce your carbohydrate intake to the point that your body's metabolism is able to manage your blood glucose levels without resorting to outside help (drugs, insulin).
I was diagnosed almost six years ago and was told that I would be on medications and insulin forever. (15 months before diagnosis, I was told I was borderline.) The hospital dietician gave me a meal plan which included twelve (12!!!) servings of carbohydrates per day -- because one of the drugs (glimepiride) was very erratic in its effects and would put me in a low-glucose coma if I didn't steadily feed carbohydrates into it. (The doctor made it clear that it wasn't a "risk", it was a certainty -- take this drug, and you either eat carbs constantly or end up unconscious and possibly dead.) There were two other drugs, metformin and something called an "SGLT2 inhibitor". The doc said I could see how well I could manage on just the drugs before starting insulin, but that I WOULD be going on insulin as well, and all I was doing was wasting time and doing damage to myself. BTW, as an important side point, the doctor also said that the SGLT2 drug was only effective when my blood glucose went above 180.
I said "this is insane" and went on a strict keto diet. I also intentionally didn't take any of the glimepiride. I did take the metformin (generally regarded as very safe), and took the SGLT2 drug for a few days (which as it turns out wasn't safe with a keto diet). After about a week of this, it became clear that my blood glucose never hit the level where the SGLT2 drug was necessary, so I stopped taking it (good thing, too).
Five months later, my blood glucose levels were normal all the time and I decided to stop taking metformin. My blood glucose levels stayed normal as long as I continued to avoid carbohydrates.
At seven months I went in for another checkup and was told my A1C was 5.7. This is considered the upper end of "normal, not diabetic."
At two years I went to another doctor, who didn't believe I had been diabetic. He wrote in his notes "no sign of diabetes."
I took that as a license to go back to eating cookies and candy bars, lost control of my blood glucose again, and now I'm just barely able to manage by staying strict. (In fairness there are a few other contributing problems now.)
I should probably start using metformin again, TBQPH, but one of the common side effects of it is sudden uncontrollable diarrhea. That side effect supposedly goes away after a while of using it, but I'm not sure I trust that, and I definitely don't want to be at constant risk of shitting my pants in public; I was fortunate that the times it happened to me were while I was at home and could waddle to the toilet immediately.
Good luck. I hope you can roll it back. If not, modern systems to manage it are excellent -- continuous glucose monitors will give you a steady reading of what your blood glucose is, and insulin pumps will put just enough into you to keep the level steady, whenever they need to. Both are relatively expensive right now, unfortunately, but worth it. I have a relative who is a type-1 and he's absolutely fine because of those devices.
