Just three weeks of a high-fibre, low-fat diet and moderate exercise could slow key changes in the body crucial to the development of diabetes, a new study suggests.
The new study, along with previous work on the so-called Pritkin diet and exercise programme, found that just three weeks of the programme reversed the clinical diagnosis of type 2 diabetes 鈥� or its precursor, called metabolic syndrome. The programme worked in half of the overweight patients following it.
鈥淭he study shows, contrary to common belief, that type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome can be reversed solely through lifestyle changes,鈥� says Christian Roberts at the University of California, Los Angeles, US, who led the study.
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The prevailing view is that such an improvement could take place only in months or years rather than weeks, Roberts told New 杏吧原创. 鈥淭he effect can be very dramatic given that, of the vast majority of people who go through the programme, at least 50% are no longer clinically defined as diabetic after three weeks, which suggests this disease is reversible.
鈥淢any people have the impression that once they have this disease that there鈥檚 not really anything they can do barring using drugs to keep the disease process from getting worse, when in fact that鈥檚 not the case.鈥�
Plant-based diet
But Diabetes UK, a charity organisation, cautions that there is no 鈥渃ure鈥� for diabetes, while highlighting the importance of a healthy lifestyle in reducing the risk of complications developing.
鈥淒iabetes cannot be cured or reversed,鈥� it stresses. 鈥淔or people diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, especially those who are overweight, lifestyle changes can mean that insulin injections or tablets are no longer needed. However, the progression of the condition is only slowed down, meaning that blood glucose levels can be controlled through diet and physical activity alone.鈥�
The reversal of clinically diagnosed diabetes or metabolic syndrome that Roberts and colleagues saw was based on improvements in the patients鈥� blood glucose levels.
The team studied 31 overweight men with either condition who enrolled on the residential programme. The diet restricts certain types of fat and sugar drastically, says Roberts, and is heavily plant based, although meat is allowed. For example, foods would include fruit salads, oatmeal, brown rice and vegetable-heavy meat casseroles. The patients also did 45 to 60 minutes of exercise a day 鈥� walking on a treadmill.
Blood-vessel widening
The three week programme improved many commonly measured parameters of diabetes such as different types of cholesterol and blood lipids. But Robert鈥檚 study was novel in that the team also indirectly examined the effect of the programme on the blood vessels.
They took serum from the patients鈥� blood samples and incubated this with human endothelial cells 鈥� the cells which line artery walls. They then measured the production of various markers, including the production of free radicals and nitric oxide.
The programme made the patients鈥� serum produce fewer free radicals and more nitric oxide. These two factors affect how efficient a blood vessel is in widening and clearing clot formation. These factors have in turn recently been acknowledged as important risk factors in heart disease and diabetes.
鈥淚f you increase production of nitric oxide, or decrease the production of free radicals, the artery will be able to open up more readily and that will increase the delivery of blood flow,鈥� explains Roberts. A rise in free radicals can increase the risk of atherosclerosis, related to heart disease and diabetes.
Journal reference: Journal of Applied Physiology (DOI: 10.1152/japplphysiol.01292.2005)
