3 ms·
Great work improving your health! While there is some controversy on what constitutes "reversal" vs "remission," I think you'll be happy to know that the idea t
by lhl 5y ago
Great work improving your health! While there is some controversy on what constitutes "reversal" vs "remission," I think you'll be happy to know that the idea that T2D is a chronic and progressive disease is pretty outdated (although sadly, still commonly believed not just by the general public, but also by clinicians/practitioners that don't know better), especially when you deal with it earlier like you are doing (I did the same a few years ago) as most people have a beta cell functional decline of 50% by the time they get an official T2D diagnosis. (For those that want to track these things, personally, I recommend adding a fasting insulin panel (even out of pocket, $5 more than getting just A1c and FBG tested), and tracking MetS markers).
Here's a bit of the more recent research suggests that full "reversal," which includes normalization of beta cell function and normal glucose tolerances/insulin sensitivity is totally possible:
Taylor, Roy, Ahmad Al-Mrabeh, Sviatlana Zhyzhneuskaya, Carl Peters, Alison C. Barnes, Benjamin S. Aribisala, Kieren G. Hollingsworth, John C. Mathers, Naveed Sattar, and Michael E. J. Lean. “Remission of Human Type 2 Diabetes Requires Decrease in Liver and Pancreas Fat Content but Is Dependent upon Capacity for β Cell Recovery.” Cell Metabolism 28, no. 4 (October 2, 2018): 547-556.e3. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmet.2018.07.003 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmet.2018.07.003.
Lim, E. L., K. G. Hollingsworth, B. S. Aribisala, M. J. Chen, J. C. Mathers, and R. Taylor. “Reversal of Type 2 Diabetes: Normalisation of Beta Cell Function in Association with Decreased Pancreas and Liver Triacylglycerol.” Diabetologia 54, no. 10 (October 2011): 2506–14. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00125-011-2204-7 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00125-011-2204-7.
BTW, exercise without a doubt increases your insulin sensitivity and is a good glucose sink, and meal mix is a good thing to point out too (there's actually plenty of fascinating research on how now just what you eat, but food consumption order actually affects your incretin/insulin response too!) and if what you're doings works best for you, by all means, keep doing it, but I'll just mention that there are many ways to go about improving your metabolic health and I think for most people, sorting out their diet first (basically, cutting out sugar, reducing processed foods) is going to be the more important thing, as exercise also tends to increase appetite, and takes more time/energy to do. Personally, I also found TRE/IF (16:8) to be one of the more initially daunting, but ultimately most effective methods when I was getting started. The way I tend to frame it is that you have a ~100g glycogen fuel tank that's your liver. How you empty/fill it is up to you, but you just want to keep it from overflowing (since when you go above that, you're going to get DNL and all the nastiness that ensues).