By Tracy Kelly
Can we put type 2 diabetes into long-term remission? It’s a question that’s asked often and to date we don’t have the answer
– but that could all change within a few years.
That’s because Diabetes UK has recently awarded a £2.4 million research
grant to look into whether losing weight – and
keeping it off – through a low-calorie liquid diet is a feasible long-term treatment for putting type 2 diabetes
into remission.
As part of the Diabetes Remission Clinical Trial (DiRECT) study,
researchers will recruit 280 overweight people with type 2 diabetes and put them
on two separate diets. This new trial follows a 2011 study that found that 11 overweight people
with type 2 diabetes saw their insulin production return to normal and their
type 2 diabetes put into remission after eight weeks on a low-calorie liquid
diet.
Following the huge media interest in this study, many people with type 2
diabetes were interested in this approach. But as exciting as these findings
were, the study did not focus on the effects of the diet in the long term and
there is still much about low-calorie diets that we are yet to understand.
As part of the new trial, one group of 140 people will spend between
eight and 20 weeks on a low-calorie diet of 800 calories a day – mainly
nutritionally complete diet soups or shakes, plus ample fluids. Then, as normal
food is reintroduced, they will learn how to change their lifestyles
permanently.
The results of this group will be compared with an equal number in the
second group, who will follow what is currently accepted as the best advice for
weight loss and weight maintenance.
Both groups will be monitored for two years to study the long-term
effects of their diets on weight. MRI scans will look at what’s happening
inside their bodies during the diet.
The aim is to see whether the stress and effort of following a
restrictive diet for several months is beneficial in the long run. After all, 800 calories is not a lot – people
following such a diet are likely to feel hungry quite a lot of the time. Also, will
they be able to stick to it for long enough for it to be successful? Even more fundamentally, this kind of diet is
not an easy option or a ‘quick fix’ and people will still have to follow a
healthy lifestyle afterwards to stop their type 2 diabetes coming back. It’s a fact that weight regain after liquid diets is common.
Type 2 diabetes will always be a serious condition, but perhaps it won’t
always be seen as a condition that people have to manage for the rest of their
lives – and that inevitably gets worse. If this study shows that low-calorie liquid diets can be used safely, on
a bigger scale and as part of routine care, it could completely change what we
know about type 2 diabetes and how it is treated by the NHS. It could also
provide an accessible way to help people with this condition live longer,
with a better quality of life and a reduced risk of serious health
complications.
My partner was diagnosed as type 2 40 years ago. Since he has been with me and living a much healthier lifestyle, when he goes to diabetic clinic now, the nurse says that they can hardly find any sign of it in his blood. He is also losing weight now and eating even healthier.
ReplyDelete