Can you get rid of diabetes?

What is diabetes
Diabetes is a disease characterized by an increase of blood glucose or blood sugar levels in the body. You get glucose from the foods that you eat. Some foods provide more sugar or glucose than others. Our body generates insulin, a hormone that helps the glucose we take get into the cells to provide our body with energy. In type 1 diabetes, your body does not make insulin. In type 2 diabetes, the body does not metabolize sugar effectively. Either your pancreas doesn’t produce enough insulin or your body has become resistant to the insulin generated in the body. This results in the buildup of glucose levels in the blood, a condition called hyperglycemia.

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Common symptoms
Signs and symptoms of type 2 diabetes include such as:

• increased hunger
• weight loss
• infections that do not go away easily
• excessive thirst and urination
• fatigue
• dark patches on the skin
• blurry vision

Is Diabetes Reversible?
Common treatment options for type 2 diabetes includes monitoring of the blood sugar levels or glucose levels periodically and frequently, and using medications or insulin as recommended by the doctor. You should develop a habit of routinely comparing your blood sugar levels with normal ranges using a handy blood sugar chart. Doctors sometimes suggest losing weight through diet and exercise. Some medications used for increased sugar levels also help in weight loss as a side effect, which can also help reverse diabetes.

Some of the ways you can manage diabetes are:
Start eating healthier, get more exercise, and lose weight: This can help you reduce symptoms of the diabetes. Weight loss is the primary factor in many cases where people are able to reverse the symptoms of diabetes. This is mainly because an excess fat in the body affects the production of insulin and how it’s used by the body.

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According to a study reported by Healthline and conducted in 2011, 11 people with type 2 diabetes drastically reduced their caloric intake for 8 weeks, reversing the course of their condition. Researchers noted that this is a small sample, and the participants had lived with the condition for only a few years.

Many other researchers have also shown that bariatric surgery or other weight loss surgeries can reverse type 2 diabetes for an extended period of time.

However, a commitment to exercise and dietary changes and other lifestyle changes are more important and may be better for you to depend on for diabetes symptoms management and effectively reversing the condition.

A team of Canadian scientists have conducted a study. In some patients, type 2 diabetes was found to be possibly reversed through a combination of lifestyle changes, intensive medical treatment using oral medication, and insulin therapy. The research was published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

The researchers tested their theory in diabetic patients who had been symptomatic for up to three years. Patients underwent a personalized exercise plan, and a strict diet that closely watched and limited their calorie consumption to just 500 to 700 a day, and pharmacological treatment with glucose-controlling drugs.

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After four months of the intervention, the study revealed that 40 percent of the 83 subjects were able to stop taking diabetes medications and were able to either partially or completely reverse the diabetes symptoms. The results of this trial suggested that people with type 2 diabetes have many options to treat their condition effectively, according to the study’s author, Natalia McInnes, of McMaster University.

About Author:
Mohd Sufyan, is a senior technology strategist and is associated with DiseaseFix as a researcher. DiseaseFix develops health information modules for patients and provides a unique platform to allow access of reliable information of a variety of types for diseases.