Diabetes and the "Fasting Diet" News

noodleann · ‎06-10-2015

You may have seen media reports of a study done in mice that "A form of fasting diet for people with diabetes could help repair cells in the pancreas, new research suggests."

I am posting a link to the Medscape article and the original article in "Cell." You may have to register to use Medscape, but it's free. I don't subscribe to "Cell" and got the entire article, which is very technical.

Medscape:

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/876331

Cell:

http://www.cell.com/fulltext/S0092-8674(17)30130-7

or the PDF (6 MB):

http://www.cell.com/cell/pdf/S0092-8674(17)30130-7.pdf

Poodlepet2 · ‎03-09-2010

Hi Noodleann, I've been reading about this line of research for awhile now and I'm not dismissing it.

What this group is doing is trying to answer a basic science question and they are basically replicating studies that have been done before in order to confirm the findings of others. That's good.

They added their own design and methods and presented their findings: can other investigators confirm this, or are new findings and discoveries emerging?

This is what basic science is: it attempting to answer the question, "We know about this trait/ disease etc, but what causes it in the most basic cellular messengers".

There are questions about how intermittent fasting works in humans. It's actually centuries and millennia old, but ethically, how do you carry it out? There is question upon question.

You will want to look up THE NEWCASTLE STUDY-I've been reading about that one for awhile and I've never looked to see if Jocelyn has a similar protocol: I doubt it-but perhaps. It has been awhile since I've looked in on the follow-up to see if other institutions have attempted to replicate findings and results.

My question is for the above mentioned study, was it sponsored by Optifast? What happened to the test subjects five years after?

I do not remember a really good description of their volunteers and what's important to know is uniform staging of disease, age of onset, age and sex of test subjects. Are they all from one small geographic area in which possible familial relationships could be a factor? I do recall a lot of information deficits.

I don't remember the doctors name, but going back awhile, I remember there was a British doctor who developed TD2 and used fasting to "cure" himself. He wrote a book about it called "The fast diet" or something similar.

Once again, fasting and health/ religious belief is centuries old in practice. I don't think it should be written off, but when it comes to humans, there are so many issues involved.

Good Sleuth Work!

Poodlepet2

cherry · ‎03-09-2010

I think people can be hopeful. I certainly am, but if there was anything much to it.,it would be front page news

When my Dr tells me about it, I'll believe it

sidsmom · ‎11-25-2011

@noodleann

Thank you for posting this.

Encouraging news for T1D.

We all know there's a cure for T2D...with proper low fat plant diet,

but even T1D can benefit from this diet, as well, by lowering T1D insulin,

without fasting.

Fasting for health is a common world-wide practice,

something that has been done for generations.

Under a physician's in-facility care, it's a wonderful way to break

addictive habits, reset your system and heal from the inside.

Fasting to rejuvenate T1D beta cells.

The Public can't even wrap their head around Food-Diabetes

connection, so Fasting? It's going to be a hard sell.

Especially since the Medical Business has too much $$ invested

in the Diabetic diagnosis for millions & millions of adults & children.

Why embrace a cure?

noodleann · ‎06-10-2015

@Poodlepet2, thank you for your thoughtful and illuminating reply. I had never heard of the Newcastle study, and found the suppositions in the overview about reversing diabetes with weight loss fascinating:

"Our work has shown that type 2 diabetes is not inevitably progressive and life-long. We have demonstrated that in many people who have had type 2 diabetes for up to 10 years, major weight loss returns 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. 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. Once they 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."

http://www.ncl.ac.uk/magres/research/diabetes/reversal/#overview

I'd read anecdotal reports about weight loss and people chucking their insulin or metformin, but never any theories underlying the mechanism. I'll be reading more on this today. What an incentive to lose weight!

Trinity11 · ‎11-16-2014

This is no different from when Type 1 diabetics were starved to lengthen their lives. In order to live they were not permitted to eat which improved their blood sugars. Dr. Jason Fung has been talking about fasting in Type 2 diabetics for years. Long term it doesn't work because people refuse to go without nourishment for long periods of time...nor should they.

tansy · ‎01-02-2011

What is the length of fasting these studies are talking about?

cherry · ‎03-09-2010

Type 2 diabetics are not all over weight. I am not , nor were my parents ,or my neighbor

There is a genetic factor and I ,along with others, have that issue

Trinity11 · ‎11-16-2014

@cherry wrote:
Type 2 diabetics are not all over weight. I am not , nor were my parents ,or my neighbor

There is a genetic factor and I ,along with others, have that issue

There are also many Type 2 diabetics that are misdiagnosed and actually are Type 1 1/2...LADA produce antibodies against their own insulin. They will always eventually need insulin. Without having the appropriate testing many could diet with few if any results.