‘Reversing’ type 2 diabetes?

You may have seen in the news today a rather promising story that type 2 diabetes can be ‘reversed’ through an extremely low calorie diet according to newly published research at Newcastle University.

It’s a study that’s been covered by the BBC, the Guardian, Channel 4, the Mirror, the Mail, and a host of other media outlets, with the majority following the line that this is a sign that the effects of diabetes can indeed be undone and, according to the Express, a ‘wonder cure’ for the condition has been discovered.

Although no strangers to over-sensationalising science/health stories, the mainstream media may be partially forgiven on this front, with the study’s title, as published in the journal Diabetologia, ‘Reversal of type 2 diabetes: normalisation of beta cell function in association with decreased pancreas and liver triacylglycerol’.

The official line from the scientists involved too includes such a grand statement, with study lead, Professor Roy Taylor of Newcastle University, stating: “While it has long been believed that someone with type 2 diabetes will always have the disease, and that it will steadily get worse, we have shown that we can reverse the condition.”

The results are indeed worthy of attention, with Prof Taylor’s team finding that in an early stage clinical trial of 11 people who were put on a diet of just 600 calories a day consisting of liquid diet drinks and non-starchy vegetables, all had reduced morning blood sugar to normal levels at the end of one week.

Fat levels in the pancreas – the organ that regulates production of insulin – had returned to normal levels too, allowing greater production of insulin and reduced blood sugar after meals.

After three months, with patients retuning gradually to a regular, healthy diet, seven patients remained at normal, non-diabetes blood sugar levels.

Diabetes UK, which funded the study, was also keen to promote the remarkable findings, with director of research, Dr Iain Frame, saying the research shows that “type 2 diabetes can be reversed, on a par with successful surgery without the side effects.”

The charity did offer caution about the extreme nature of the diet involved in the trial too, with Dr Frame recommending such measures only be taken under medical supervision.

However, some in the field aren’t quite so enamoured with such intense dieting to achieve results.

As reported by the BBC, Prof Edwin Gale from the Unviersity of Bristol said: “We have known that starvation is a good cure for diabetes. If we introduced rationing tomorrow, then we could get rid of diabetes in this country.”

Prof Gale also pointed out the limited time frame of the study suggesting that once diabetes is in the system, you can only delay its onset rather, but sooner or later it will come.

This is when the validity of a true ‘reversal’ of the condition becomes a real question. Both Diabetes UK and the researchers acknowledge the sample size of eleven participants is too small to draw significant conclusions, and further studies are needed to further establish the extent of reversibility in people who have had diabetes for longer than four years as well as the long-term outcome once a normal diet is resumed.

As written about in Dr Ben Goldacre’s latest Bad Science column, producing a pattern from experimental data to come to a conclusion can be a ‘magical’ experience, but medicine is an ‘imperfect art’.

“We all know one atom of experience isn’t enough to spot a pattern.” writes Goldacre, “But when you put lots of experiences together and process that data, you get new knowledge.”

We may not yet have to knowledge to know if we can truly reverse type 2 diabetes for good, but that one atom of experience in research is there, and it can only encourage more to follow.