Our Research

Reversing Type II Diabetes

This project will attempt to demonstrate that type 2 diabetes is not inevitably progressive and life-long. Our researchers are working to achieve a good evidence that in people who have had type 2 diabetes for 4 years or less, major weight loss can return insulin secretion to normal.

It has been possible to work out the basic mechanisms which lead to type 2 diabetes. Too much fat within liver and pancreas prevents normal insulin action and prevents normal insulin secretion. Our hypothesis is that both defects are reversible by substantial weight loss.

A crucial point is that individuals have different levels of tolerance of fat within liver and pancreas. Only when a person has more fat than they can cope with does type 2 diabetes develop. In other words, once a person crosses their personal fat threshold, type 2 diabetes develops. As per our proposed research study, once the individuals successfully lose weight and go below their personal fat threshold, diabetes will disappear.

Some people can tolerate a BMI of 40 or more without getting diabetes. Others cannot tolerate a BMI of 22 without diabetes appearing, as their bodies are set to function normally at a BMI of, say 19. This is especially so in people of South Asian ethnicity.

The study will be done on people who had type 2 diabetes of up to 4 years. It is possible to wake up the insulin producing cells of the pancreas by a consistent diet. This happens at the same time as the fat content in the pancreas decreased. Previous studies have shown that fat stops insulin release, so it is reasonable to deduce that the removal of fat from the pancreas allowed insulin release to normalize.