isn't that what GLP1s are for (before you get full blown type 2)
javchz•2h ago
Yes, but even lifestyle changes (like a diet low in glycemic load and building muscle) can help reduce many of the harmful effects of type 2 diabetes, even sending it into remission for some people in early stages.
Type 1 is a different story. It’s the lack of natural insulin production (due to a damaged pancreas, autoimmune or other causes), basically the opposite problem to type 2, and no amount of lifestyle changes will replace of need of insulin doses.
kulahan•50m ago
I just want to make clear what the other commenter said: type 2 is completely reversible in its early stages. Lose weight, eat a more healthy diet, and you should see your body return to normal.
Unfortunately, there's a serious time limit on this news, as the disease does permanently damage your cells, but in a way that's not terrible. It's probably easier to be shocked by a diagnosis into a lifestyle change than to find out now and undo 30 years of living with daily insulin injections anyways.
moi2388•2h ago
Why? Type 2 can be mostly prevented and if caught early enough treated with diet and exercise.
If you solve type 2 they’ll just eat themselves into a new episode again
UI_at_80x24•2h ago
I know you put the caveat "mostly" in here but it's important to state that this is not always true.
I was diagnosed with T2 a couple of years ago.
During that time I was cycling 25 miles a day.
After the diagnoses I completely eliminated all carbs from my diet.
My blood sugar was still not under control.
My fasting blood sugar (first thing in the morning, and 18hrs of fasting) was the highest point of the day. (14-18 mmol/L)
I fasted (water only) for 1 week.
no difference.
I was on a bunch of medication, none of it helped.
It wasn't until I started taking a GLP-1 drug that my sugar came under control.
So medication (ozempic) was critical to me getting my blood sugar under control.
Diet didn't fix it. Exercise didn't help.
I've lost ~90lbs since then.
I'd probably have died/gone into a coma if not for GLP-based drugs.
My anecdote does not contradict wide-spread science and medically derived knowledge. But it should help temper the fat and diet shaming that exists in society.
fhdkweig•1h ago
If you lost 90 lbs, you must have been at least 90 lbs overweight. That isn't a little bit of fat. That is a lot of fat. And it takes a lifetime to put on that much fat. You can't really claim that you had proper exercise and diet before you started taking medications. I have seen many episodes of My 600 LB Life and similar shows where the clients and their caretakers swear on their mother's graves that they even eat at all, but that isn't how reality and physics work.
Don't misunderstand, I'm glad they made the GLP-1 drugs, but still, they have for years been reversing Type 2 diabetes through exercise a diet.
borroka•17m ago
If you say that diet did not fix it, but then you lost ~90 lbs, which is a massive weight loss [(1) congratulations, 2) we are becoming used to people losing 200 lbs and 90 is a victim of weight-loss inflation], it looks like the problem was that the diet, which can be defined as a particular way of eating and/or caloric restriction, was not really a diet in the second meaning of the term.
Ozempic helped you lose weight primarily by making you stick to a diet, due to its suppressing effects on appetite.
somenameforme•11m ago
A bit of a tangent, but the biking stuff is not relevant. What matters is your caloric consumption. Biking 25 miles, depending on your weight, is going to burn something like 1300 calories. For some contrast, a 2L bottle of coke has about 800 calories. So treat yourself to a big serving of Coke after (or during) the biking, maybe a fast food burger or whatever, and it's like you're not even biking at all in terms of caloric effect. This is also true with 'sports drinks' which are also loaded with calories which can be really easy to chug when doing cardio intensive work.
And this can easily happen because biking 25 miles is going to send your appetite skyrocketing. This is why working out to lose weight is probable one of the worst ideas imaginable. Working out is a critical part of staying in good health, but it simply has to be paired with a good diet, permanently. In other words you can't work away a bad diet at the gym (or on a bike), it just doesn't work.
peterfirefly•5m ago
Exercise is relevant, too. It's not just obesity and it's not just diet.
(And genes matter, too.)
bregma•1h ago
Most cancer can be prevented and if caught early treated with surgery, chemo, or radiation. No need to look for a cure, those people will probably just keep smoking or eating or exposing themselves to the environment and die anyway.
ch4s3•1h ago
> Most cancer can be prevented
This is a highly questionable statement. There are myriad reasons for the kinds of DNA copying errors that cause cancer(s), and few are mono-causal. Type-II diabetes is mainly a lifestyle disease and barely existed 50 years ago. That said any treatment or effort to cure Type-II diabetes is laudable, and it's clear that broad societal factors create the conditions for so many people to develop diabetes.
peterfirefly•7m ago
A lot of them are probably not copying errors but errors in which parts of the genome are turned on and which parts are turned off.
(Agree entirely about type 2 diabetes.)
snarf21•2h ago
There have been a lot of advancements on this front too. One promising technique is duodenum resurfacing (DMR). This helps reset some of the insulin sensitivity issues. The one problem we have is that this is a one time low risk procedure compared to selling insulin or GLP-1. Like all of our problems in healthcare, we have a major misalignment in incentives.
m3kw9•3h ago
kingkawn•2h ago
bentt•2h ago
mezeek•2h ago
javchz•2h ago
Type 1 is a different story. It’s the lack of natural insulin production (due to a damaged pancreas, autoimmune or other causes), basically the opposite problem to type 2, and no amount of lifestyle changes will replace of need of insulin doses.
kulahan•50m ago
Unfortunately, there's a serious time limit on this news, as the disease does permanently damage your cells, but in a way that's not terrible. It's probably easier to be shocked by a diagnosis into a lifestyle change than to find out now and undo 30 years of living with daily insulin injections anyways.
moi2388•2h ago
If you solve type 2 they’ll just eat themselves into a new episode again
UI_at_80x24•2h ago
I was diagnosed with T2 a couple of years ago. During that time I was cycling 25 miles a day. After the diagnoses I completely eliminated all carbs from my diet. My blood sugar was still not under control. My fasting blood sugar (first thing in the morning, and 18hrs of fasting) was the highest point of the day. (14-18 mmol/L) I fasted (water only) for 1 week. no difference.
I was on a bunch of medication, none of it helped.
It wasn't until I started taking a GLP-1 drug that my sugar came under control.
So medication (ozempic) was critical to me getting my blood sugar under control. Diet didn't fix it. Exercise didn't help.
I've lost ~90lbs since then. I'd probably have died/gone into a coma if not for GLP-based drugs.
My anecdote does not contradict wide-spread science and medically derived knowledge. But it should help temper the fat and diet shaming that exists in society.
fhdkweig•1h ago
Don't misunderstand, I'm glad they made the GLP-1 drugs, but still, they have for years been reversing Type 2 diabetes through exercise a diet.
borroka•17m ago
Ozempic helped you lose weight primarily by making you stick to a diet, due to its suppressing effects on appetite.
somenameforme•11m ago
And this can easily happen because biking 25 miles is going to send your appetite skyrocketing. This is why working out to lose weight is probable one of the worst ideas imaginable. Working out is a critical part of staying in good health, but it simply has to be paired with a good diet, permanently. In other words you can't work away a bad diet at the gym (or on a bike), it just doesn't work.
peterfirefly•5m ago
(And genes matter, too.)
bregma•1h ago
ch4s3•1h ago
This is a highly questionable statement. There are myriad reasons for the kinds of DNA copying errors that cause cancer(s), and few are mono-causal. Type-II diabetes is mainly a lifestyle disease and barely existed 50 years ago. That said any treatment or effort to cure Type-II diabetes is laudable, and it's clear that broad societal factors create the conditions for so many people to develop diabetes.
peterfirefly•7m ago
(Agree entirely about type 2 diabetes.)
snarf21•2h ago
toomuchtodo•1h ago
CyberDildonics•1h ago