Researchers at the University of Glasgow and Newcastle University tested whether primary care clinics could put the disease into remission with a diet program. Participants replaced food entirely with a low-calorie formula diet for three to five months, then reintroduced normal food under structured support.
At twelve months, 46 percent of participants in the diet program were in diabetes remission, meaning blood sugar below the diabetes threshold off all medication, compared with 4 percent in the usual-care group. Remission tracked weight loss, reaching 86 percent of those who lost 15 kilograms or more.
The program ran through ordinary family doctors' offices rather than specialist hospital clinics, which mattered for showing it could scale beyond research centers. A five-year follow-up found that about a quarter of those in remission at two years were still in remission at five, though many regained some weight over time, showing the effect fades for some people without continued support.
Read the original study
Lean et al., The Lancet, 2018 · doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(17)33102-1
A diet program put diabetes in remission.
Source
- Lean, M. E., Leslie, W. S., Barnes, A. C., Brosnahan, N., Thom, G., McCombie, L., Peters, C., Zhyzhneuskaya, S., Al-Mrabeh, A., Hollingsworth, K. G., Rodrigues, A. M., Rehackova, L., Adamson, A. J., Sniehotta, F. F., Mathers, J. C., Ross, H. M., McIlvenna, Y., Stefanetti, R., Trenell, M., . . . Taylor, R. (2018). Primary care-led weight management for remission of type 2 diabetes (DiRECT): an open-label, cluster-randomised trial. The Lancet, 391(10120), 541–551. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(17)33102-1