Intermittent fasting would help beat the disease without medicaments
A complete remission of diabetes after practicing intermittent fasting: this is the result of a study published in the Endocrine Society Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. This work involved 36 participants, aged 38 to 72, with type 2 diabetes for one year to 11 years and using antidiabetic drugs and/or insulin injections. Two-thirds of them were men. The body mass index, or BMI, of the participants ranged between 19.1 and 30.4.
Type 2 diabetes: “remission is possible if patients lose weight”
As a reminder, type 2 diabetes is a disorder caused by a disturbance of carbohydrate metabolism and mainly linked to lifestyle, according to Inserm. “Type 2 diabetes is not necessarily a permanent, lifelong disease. Diabetes remission is possible if patients lose weight by changing their diet and exercise habitssaid Dongbo Liu, corresponding author of the study and a professor at Hunan Agricultural University in Changsha, China.
According to research, the diet “is a proposed dietary approach based on intermittent fasting involving five days of fasting followed by ten days of reintroducing everyday foods”. It contains foods, such as wheat, barley, rice, rye and oats, and is characterized by a reduction in glycemic load, calories and carbohydrates, as well as an increase in unsaturated fatty acids , say the scientists.
Medication intake was reduced after intermittent fasting
As part of the study, participants were randomly assigned to either the group involving intermittent fasting or a control group. After following the diet for three months, nearly 90% of participants, including those taking blood sugar lowering medications and insulin, reduced their use of diabetes medications.
Three months after the intervention ended, 47.2% of participants on the diet had achieved diabetes remission. This figure was 2.8% in the control group. At 12-month follow-up, 44.4% of volunteers achieved lasting diabetes remission. “This study demonstrated the clinical effectiveness of intermittent fasting in achieving diabetes remission for at least one year“, conclude the researchers.
