A Cure for Diabetes?

28 Jun 2011

Type 2 diabetes is rapidly becoming a huge and world wide health problem. The Guardian reports that, according to a new study, more than 350 million people are now affected:

“[Diabetes] is set to become the single largest burden on world health care systems,” one of the study’s main authors, Professor Majid Ezzati, of Imperial College London, told the Observer. "Many nations are going to find it very difficult to cope with the consequences."

The article mentions another study, claiming that type 2 diabetes can be reversed in newly diagnosed. If true, it may help millions of people and save billions in health costs.

It turns out to be a study by Roy Taylor from Newcastle University. BBC covered the study.

While the study only includes 11 people, the results so far are remarkable as they hint at a possible diet-based cure. Roy Taylor:

This is a radical change in understanding Type 2 diabetes. It will change how we can explain it to people newly diagnosed with the condition. While it has long been believed that someone with Type 2 diabetes will always have the disease, and that it will steadily get worse, we have shown that we can reverse the condition.