Type II diabetes is a growing American and international epidemic.
It is almost impossible to underestimate the cost of this disease on people’s lives and our economy.
Congress has estimated the cost of diabetes to be around $350 BILLION a year. Nearly one in every four health dollars being spent is spent on direct and indirect costs of this disease.
Once you have been diagnosed, you can expect a cost of over $16,000 a year to treat it.
You add to this the cost of absenteeism which increases the bill by an additional $33 billion, reduction in productivity ($27 billion), and inability to work costs an additional $38 billion.
And the number of people afflicted by this disease is staggering. The number of people afflicted with this tripled from 1990-2010 and the rate of new cases doubles every year.
It is the leading cause of amputation, causes heart attacks and strokes, kidney damage and loss of eyesight.
The only treatment for years was sentencing people to taking ever-increasing amounts of insulin to control blood sugar.
The downside of this treatment is insulin causes the body to retain fat. Obesity increases the problems of this disease.
Virta Health and the University of Indiana Medical School’s obesity department have been tracking dietary approaches to reversing type II diabetes.
Their secret? A low carb diet, also known as a Keto diet.
The study is scheduled to continue for five years, but the preliminary results can give millions of people cause for hope.
The study showed that over half of the patients enrolled in the program were able to end their insulin use in as little as ten weeks.
Many ended their use of insulin in two weeks.
Even long-term users of insulin were able to end 20 or more years of insulin dependence two years into the program.
Dr. Sarah Hallberg gave a recent presentation in Denver about the results:
“So, our primary outcomes were body weight metabolic syndrome criteria which again is what we’re going to be reporting on in our pre-diabetes paper and type 2 diabetes status. So here it is, two years.
What happened? We sustained the results. We sustained the results. I mean this is very exciting. So, we reversed type 2 diabetes and we were able to keep people in reversal. We went from 60% at two years to 54%. Over half of the people in the trial maintaining diabetes reversal.
That’s huge. Just for one moment imagine that was a drug. Right? Do we need another drug? Come on, we need food, we need proper food. It works. And the medication reductions… They are staying incredibly robust. So, these are people who are maintaining a lower A1c and still staying off drugs.
And I’ve got to tell you something so exciting, and that is in the last six months… so this is three years after these people started, I have taken three people who have a diabetes duration of 15 to 20 years off insulin. Three years.”
This study shows that the results of their diet work as well as bariatric surgery for getting people off insulin.
It is vitally important for people taking insulin to work closely with their doctor when making this diet change because it can radically alter blood sugar levels.
People should not get off insulin without medical supervision.
But this should bring hope to the millions of Americans suffering from type II diabetes.
