New Study Shows That Its Excess Fat That Causes Type 2 Diabetes And That Type 2 Diabetes Is Reversible
Source: Thailand Medical News Dec 22, 2019 5 years, 1 day, 10 hours, 4 minutes ago
Thailand Diabetes
In a study of the first kind, medical scientists have been able to observe people developing
Type 2 diabetes and confirmed that
fat over-spills from the liver into the pancreas, triggering the chronic condition.
The new research, led by Professor Roy Taylor at Newcastle University, UK, is published in the academic journal,
Cell Metabolism.
The research involved a group of people from Tyneside who previously had
Type 2 diabetes but had lost weight and successfully reversed the condition as part of the DiRECT trial, which was funded by
Diabetes UK and led by Professors Roy Taylor and Mike Lean (Glasgow University).
Many of the participants remained non-diabetic for the rest of the two year study, however, a small group went on to re-gain the weight and re-developed
Type 2 diabetes.
The lead author, Professor Dr Roy Taylor, from the Newcastle University Institute of Translational and Clinical Research, explained what the advanced scanning techniques and blood monitoring revealed.
Dr Taylor told
Thailand Medical News, "We saw that when a person accumulates too much
fat, which should be stored under the skin, then it has to go elsewhere in the body. The amount that can be stored under the skin varies from person to person, indicating a 'personal
fat threshold' above which
fat can cause mischief. When
fat cannot be safely stored under the skin, it is then stored inside the liver, and over-spills to the rest of the body including the pancreas. This 'clogs up' the pancreas, switching off the genes which direct how insulin should effectively be produced, and this causes
Type 2 diabetes."
This new research by Dr Taylor confirms his Twin Cycle Hypothesis that
Type 2 diabetes is caused by excess
fat actually within both the liver and pancreas, and especially that this process is reversible.
This research paper builds on previous Newcastle studies supported by Diabetes UK showing exactly why
Type 2 diabetes can be reversed back to normal glucose control. Those studies led to the large DiRECT trial which showed that Primary Care staff can achieve remission of
Type 2 diabetes by using a low calorie diet with support to maintain the weight loss.
About 25 percent of participants achieved a staggering 15 kg or more weight loss, and of these, almost nine out of 10 people put their
Type 2 diabetes into remission. After two years, more than one third of the group had been free of
diabetes and off all
diabetes medication for at least two years.
This approach to management of short duration
Type 2 diabetes is to be piloted in 2020 by t
he NHS in up to 5,000 people across England, and a similar program is being rolled out in Scotland.
Dr Taylor adds: "This means we can now see
Type 2 diabetes as a simple condition where the individual has accumulated more
fat than they can cope with. Importantly this means that through diet and persistence, patients are able to lose the
fat and potentially reverse their
diabetes. The sooner this is done after diagnosis, the more likely it is that remission can be achieved."
Reference : Ahmad Al-Mrabeh et al. Hepatic Lipoprotein Export and Remission of Human Type 2 Diabetes after Weight Loss, Cell Metabolism (2019). DOI: 10.1016/j.cmet.2019.11.018
