It is more and more accepted that diabetes can be brought into remission. Some people call it reversal, but reversal implies that it is permanent and there isn’t enough data at the moment to support the claim (the DiRECT study lasted 2 years, the Counterbalance study lasted 6 months, the Look AHEAD study lasted 4 years).
The amount of time since diagnostic of diabetes is important. In the Counterbalance study, 87% of those diagnosed for less than 4 years achieved remission with a fasting plasma glucose 5.8mmol/L at 6 months. It was 6.2mmol/L in the subgroup that had been diagnosed for 8 to 12 years. Patients diagnosed over 12 years before the study never achieved non-diabetic fasting plasma glucose concentrations.
The lack of remission for patients diagnosed over 12 years before the study is likely due to the fact that you need a certain amount of beta cells left alive to recover (I’ve read 20% is the threshold). After 12 years, you don’t have enough left to support the normal pancreatic function.
That’s why it’s extremely important to take action immediately. Once diagnosed, there is no time to waste: make a plan immediately and work at it. If you are overweight, you need to lose weight fast (it is not known if weight loss can lead to remission when having a BMI<25kg/m2 and having T2 diabetes).
