A new study has shown that remission of type 2 diabetes is possible for some people with lower body mass index (BMIs), according to Medical Xpress.
Prof. Roy Taylor and his team, delegates at the 2022 Diabetes UK Professional Conference, found that type 2 diabetes remission is possible for some people with lower body weights.
The study has shown an astounding 70% of participants with lower BMIs went into type 2 remission through diet-induced weight loss, despite not living with obesity or overweight.
Obesity increases the risk of type 2 diabetes, but 10% of people with type 2 diabetes have normal BMI.
Prof Taylor, the study’s principal investigator, said, “This is very good news for everyone with type 2 diabetes, not only pointing the way forward for effective return to health but also challenging the misconceptions clinging to the condition.”
Prof. Taylor’s previous research gave hope to people with obesity as well as type 2 diabetes by stating that it was possible for some people to put their metabolic condition into remission via weight loss. The study showed that losing fat from inside the liver and pancreas was key to type 2 diabetes remission.
The current study confirms for the first time that people with type 2 diabetes and lower BMIs can be supported to put their type 2 into remission through a structured low-calorie diet program and that the key to this is losing harmful fat from the liver and pancreas, according to Medical Xpress.
Chris Askew, Diabetes UK CEO, said, “Building on the pioneering DiRECT trial, this game-changing study from Professor Taylor and his team advances our understanding of why type 2 diabetes develops, and what can be done to treat it.”
“Our ambition is for as many people as possible to have the chance to put their type 2 diabetes into remission and live well for longer,” he added. “The findings of ReTUNE potentially take us a significant step closer to achieving this goal by showing that remission isn’t only possible for people of certain body weights.” “It is our hope that ReTUNE—as DiRECT did before it—will inform the development of services and support so that many more people with type 2 diabetes will have the possibility of remission open to them.”
