Highlights
- A new study shows that a low-calorie diet may help in reversing diabetes
- The study was published in the Journal Cell Metabolism
- Researchers are yet to confirm the results in a human trial
We're commemorating World Diabetes Day 2017 today and stumbled upon this piece of news that brings hope to all diabetes patients. A team of researchers, from the Yale University in the United States, have found that following a low-calorie diet may help reverse diabetes. The study was published in the Journal Cell Metabolism and indicates that there is a link between calorie restriction and diabetes.
Diabetes is a group of diseases that occur due to too much sugar in the blood, also known as high glucose. Your diet and lifestyle habits play a major role in diabetes management as the food you eat has a direct impact on your blood sugar levels.
For their study, the team used an animal model and examined rats with type 2 diabetes who were fed very low calorie diets, defined as one quarter the normal take. In just three days, researchers found three significant changes that contributed to lowering blood glucose concentrations. The rats experienced lower rate of conversion of lactose and amino acids into glucose, reduced rate of liver glycogen conversion to glucose, and had lower fat content, which is known to improve the liver’s response to insulin.
The researchers analysed the different aspects of liver carbohydrate and fat metabolism and found that these three changes helped in the rapid reversal of hyperglycemia. The team wants to investigate these findings and hopes that these results are replicated in human clinical trials too.
They believe that if these findings are confirmed they can help in the development of novel drugs that can cure diabetes. At present, there is no cure for diabetes. It is life-long chronic disease and while there are medications and diets available to control and manage diabetes, there's no scientific cure for it yet.