Research shows that people who are obese or overweight and dealing with type 2 diabetes can reverse this health issue when they lose weight. One research team did a small study where they saw how weight loss helped reverse type 2 diabetes in the participants, despite their body mass index (BMI) was still in moderate range. The study authors also think that more than just lowering one’s BMI, it’s lowering the levels of fat surrounding the organs that’s actually more important.
A research group that had a small, preliminary study found that people diagnosed with type 2 diabetes who also have a BMI within the moderate range can actually reverse their diabetes diagnosis by losing weight. The study finding were also reported at the Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes.
Explaining Type 2 Diabetes
Type 2 diabetes is considered the most common of all forms of diabetes. In the United States alone, it accounts for around 91.2% of all diabetes cases in the country.
Type 2 diabetes is a condition that happens when a person’s body cannot produce enough insulin, or if the insulin they are producing is not working effectively. The function of insulin is to help glucose enter the cells of the body, so when there is a lack of absence, the glucose ends up staying in the blood where it brings about damage to the tissues and organs.
For those that suffer from this type of diabetes, they have a heightened risk of a number of serious health issues, such as heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, bladder problems, dental problems, as well as issues with their feet.
Researchers writing for the journal Nutrients explain how scientists mostly believed that type 2 diabetes was a chronic and incurable disease, which is why the main focus of treatment was on how to manage the symptoms rather than cure them.
But new evidence suggests that if overweight or obese individuals manage to lose weight and continue to maintain it, they could actually reserve type 2 diabetes completely.
How About Weight Loss Even Without Being Overweight?
Although the preliminary study is quite small, the study group chose to take it one step further by looking at participants where weight loss helps them reverse type 2 diabetes even if their weight is within the moderate BMI range.
The publication Medical News Today (MNT) chose to speak with Dr. Ahmad Al-Mrabeh, the first author of the study, who also happens to be a Transitional Research Fellow at the Centre for Cardiovascular Science at Queen’s Medical Research Institute at the University of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom.
Dr. Al-Mrabeh shared that they chose to explore how weight loss could be effective at reversing type 2 diabetes for those with moderate BMI due to the results of other previous research.
He said, “We observed that the metabolic profile changed markedly after following a low calorie diet even when the change in body weight was […] minor. We, therefore, wanted to test whether inducing modest weight loss could achieve remission in those who are non-obese.”
Director of the Newcastle Magnetic Resonance Centre at Newcastle University, U.K. and principal investigator of the study, Professor Roy Taylor, explained, “[o]ur previous research has shown that weight loss of 10-15% can achieve remission in people with type 2 diabetes who are overweight or obese.”
Prof. Taylor also said, “Doctors tend to assume, however, that type 2 diabetes has a different cause in those who aren’t overweight. This means that, unlike those who are overweight, those who are of [moderate] weight aren’t usually advised to lose weight before being given diabetes drugs and insulin.”
“Instead, there’s a tendency to start them on insulin and other medication at a much earlier stage. What we’ve shown is that if those of [moderate] weight lose 10-15% of their weight, they have a very good chance of getting rid of their diabetes,” he added.
He continued, “This should be a wake-up call to doctors, and with 1 in 10 of the 4.5 million people with type 2 diabetes in the U.K. of [moderate] weight at diagnosis, there is no time to be lost in getting the message across.”
The Preliminary Study
The preliminary study included just 23 people, of which 12 of them were given a type 2 diabetes diagnosis with ‘an average age of 58.3 years and an average BMI of 24.5.’ The other 11 did not have diabetes, but they were similar in age and BMI with the 12. This was considered the control group.According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), they classify BMI scores as “healthy” when they are in the range of 18.5 – 24.9.
All the participants were made to follow a low calories diet for two weeks, and were only allowed to consume 800 calories or less each day. After which, the research team told them to maintain their new weight for at least four to six weeks.
They did this cycle between two to three times until all the participants had lowered their body weight by at least 10 – 15%. The researchers then measured the visceral fat and insulin sensitivity of each participant before, during and after the study.
Two-Thirds Showed Remission
By the end of the study, the research group matched the participants with diabetes to the control group participants of the same gender, age, and BMI. What the scientists discovered was that the participants with diabetes lost ‘more than twice as much fat in their liver compared with the controls.’
As for the diabetes group, the fat in the pancreas lowered ‘from 5.1% to 4.5%. Also, their average triglyceride levels fell from 1.6 millimoles per liter to 1.0 millimoles per liter – a significant reduction similar to the control group.’
The research found that the most significant result of the study was that ‘two-thirds of the participants found that their type 2 diabetes went into remission and could stop taking their medication.’
Prof. Taylor explains that “[t]hese results, while preliminary, demonstrate very clearly that diabetes is not caused by obesity but by [carrying too much weight] for your own body. It’s due to having too much fat in your liver and pancreas, whatever your BMI.”
He went on to explain, “In the liver, this excess fat prevents insulin from working normally. In the pancreas, it causes the beta cells to stop producing insulin.”
Meanwhile, Dr. Al-Mrabeh also told MNT that the study results might be reproducible in bigger studies, “however, it is important to understand the mechanisms of excess fat buildup within these vital metabolic organs (liver and pancreas) in non-obese people.”
Leader of the Center for Diabetes Research at the University of Bergen, Norway, Prof. Pål R. Njølstad, also spoke with MNT. He said “[t]he findings are interesting and indicate that weight loss is also important in non-obese individuals with type 2 diabetes.”
Prof. Njølstad also shared that “[m]ore studies are needed with an increased number of study participants and increased time of follow up, in addition to investigating the effect of other factors, such as age, sex, and ethnicity.”
Dr. Al-Mrabeh also went to on to tell MNT that the researchers will continue to develop these initial findings.
He shared, “I have recently moved to the University of Edinburgh to establish an independent research program looking into the mechanisms of how excess fat causes damage to the pancreas in type 2 diabetes. My aim is to dissect these mechanisms using both human and animal studies.”
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