Diabetes "Cure"

A recent study showed that people that only consumed 600 calories for 8 weeks may reverse diabetes. So 11 people were in the study (not very large, usually need at least 30 for a good sample size) and for 8 weeks drank a liquid diet of vegetables. Although, this doesn’t sound pleasant I am sure more people would be interested if this method could reverse diabetes. What is really interesting however is that 3 months after going off the 600 calorie diet 7 of the 11 were free of diabetes (remember they were only on the diet for 2 months). The average weight loss was 33 pounds. Considering the average weight of the patients was 220 pounds this is still a substantial amount of weight loss. What is also interesting is that the fat in the patients’ pancreases decreased in the time of the study. Before the study there was about 8% fat in the pancreas. After the study the level of fat was 6%. Apparently fat is stored in the liver and pancreas when we consume more calories than we burn.

Considering 25 million people have Type 2 diabetes this is interesting news. I doubt whether many people could go through 8 weeks of only consuming 600 calories per day. It would be interesting to see a follow up study where patients would consume either: 600, 700, or 800 calories and then see what affect that would have on the body. Also the real question is how long someone would have to be on this diet to actually reverse diabetes. The body has a system for homeostasis (calibrating things back to normal). Also if the fat is stored in the pancreas and liver what would happen if fat could somehow be removed from these areas? I didn’t even mention throwing in Type II diabetes drugs which could even help the outcome. I am sure more studies will be done in the future and have a feeling there will be no miracle pill for obesity, diabetes, or any other serious illness.

More importantly I think people think of obesity as a bigger problem than it actually is. Some people argue that it is in our genes that cause us to be obese. I wouldn’t deny this, however if genes were the cause how did so many people become obese even when their parents weren’t obese? Food has become more plentiful, cheaper, and easier to access. People also are working fewer jobs that require physical labor. It would be interesting to see a chart of rates of obesity and the percent of people with manufacturing jobs. Also people don’t assume there is any benefit to being obese. If people want to live fewer years of live but consume really tasty food who are we to deny them? People claim that life expectancy will decrease with the current generation. I don’t find this too compelling when drug companies keep innovating and we are just beginning the journey with figuring out the human genome. We will only know more about the human body and food in the years to come not less. The question is whether people do anything with this information.