Can intermittent fasting help treat or even reverse type 2 diabetes?

 

• Intermittent fasting involves a regular pattern of eating few or no calories for a fixed period, which can vary from 12 hours every day to 1 or more days each week.
• Some people follow these diets hoping to lose weight, improve their overall health, or both.
• A review of the available evidence suggests that these diets can also reduce or even remove the need for medication in people with type 2 diabetes.
• More research is necessary before doctors can recommend widespread use of the diets for people with the condition.

In recent years, intermittent fasting has gained popularity as a way toTrusted Source lose weight, improve health, and enhance performance.

Some studies suggest that this dietary approach may even extend healthy lifespan without the need for the severe caloric restriction that classic anti-aging diets entail.

People who practice intermittent fasting eat few or no calories for anything from 12 hours a day to 1 or more days every week. The former technique is known as time-restricted feeding, whereas the latter is known as periodic fasting.

A recent review of the evidence suggests that this type of diet may help people with type 2 diabetes safely reduce or even remove their need for medication.

However, people should seek the advice of a diabetes professional before embarking on such a diet.

The review, by Dr. Michael Albosta and Jesse Bakke, Ph.D., of Central Michigan University College of Medicine in Mount Pleasant, appears in Clinical Diabetes and EndocrinologyTrusted Source.

Insulin resistance

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), diabetes affects 34.2 millionTrusted Source people in the United States, which equates to about 1 in every 10 people. In 2017, it was the seventh leading cause of deathTrusted Source in the country.

People with type 2 diabetes have abnormally high concentrations of glucose in their blood, known as hyperglycemia.

Several factors may contribute to hyperglycemia in type 2 diabetes. These include reduced secretion of the hormone insulin, which regulates blood sugar levels, and reduced sensitivity of the body’s tissues to the hormone. Doctors refer to this reduced sensitivity as insulin resistance.

The condition can cause a range of severe complications, including kidney failure and blindness.

The goal of treatment for type 2 diabetes is to prevent or delay these complications and maintain the person’s quality of life.

Healthcare professionals encourage people with type 2 diabetes to exercise regularly, reach a moderate weight, and eat a well-balanced diet. However, most individuals also need to take drugs to lower their blood glucose levels.

Most of these drugs raise insulin levels, which the authors of the review say can have an unintended negative consequence.

“While this works to reduce hyperglycemia in these patients, the idea of treating a disease of insulin resistance by increasing insulin may be counterproductive, leading to the requirement of increasing amounts of medication over a long period of time,” they write.

People who take the drugs can gain weight and develop increased insulin resistance.

In addition, they can have raised levels of a hormone called leptin, which normally reduces appetite. This may suggest that they become increasingly resistant to this hormone, too.

They also have lower levels of a third hormone, called adiponectinTrusted Source, which usually counters diabetes and inflammation.

Source: Medical News Today