Type two diabetics cured by fasting, say researchers

PLANNED fasting may help reverse type two diabetes, and cut out need for insulin while controlling blood glucose, doctors suggest.

Three men aged between 40 and 67 tried out planned intermittent fasting to see if it might ease their symptoms.

They were taking various drugs to control their disease as well as daily units of insulin. In addition to diabetes, they all had high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

Two of them fasted on alternate days for a full 24 hours, while the third fasted for three days a week. On fast days, they were allowed to drink very low calorie drinks, such as tea and coffee, water or broth, and to eat one very low calorie meal in the evening.

Before embarking on their regime, they all attended a nutritional training seminar.

They stuck to this pattern for around 10 months after which fasting blood glucose, average blood glucose, weight, and waist circumference were remeasured.

All three were able to stop injecting themselves with insulin within a month of starting fasting. In one case this took only five days, according to the report in ‘BMJ Case Reports’.

Drugs

Two of the men were able to stop taking all their other diabetic drugs, while the third discontinued three out of the four drugs he was taking. They all lost weight by 10-18pc.

The report was compiled at Scarborough Hospital in Ontario, Canada. “The use of a therapeutic fasting regimen for treatment of [type 2 diabetes] is virtually unheard of,” write the authors. “This showed that 24-hour fasting regimens can significantly reverse or eliminate the need for diabetic medication.”

It cautions this is an observational study, and refers to just three cases. It isn’t possible to draw firm conclusions about the wider success of this approach.

According to the Healthy Ireland survey, 854,000 adults over 40 in Ireland are at risk of developing type two diabetes.

There are more than 300,000 in the 30–39 age group that are overweight and not taking the weekly 150 minutes recommended physical activity, leaving them at an increased risk.

Lifestyle changes are key to managing the disease, but cannot always control blood glucose levels.