How can my friend get rid of diabetes without severely staving herself?

I've been a Type 2 for just over a year and I've read the British study as well as doing my own research on 600 calories a day. I'm currently on Day 28 and I feel absolutely fine. In fact, I feel better now than I did when I was watching carbs and taking 4 Metformin a day. 8 weeks of 600 cals a day, according to what I've read, is not long enough to do yourself harm. I'm taking my BG several times a day, and I'm matching the results of the study almost to the letter. I've lost 28 pounds. My fasting BG this morning was 85(!). In the last week and a half, I've only been as high as 138 once. On my first day, I was 315. I would advise telling your doctor you intend to do it, however, and only with close monitoring. Just to be safe. But, as far as I'm concerned, I have no regrets AT ALL. You can tell your friend it will be very unpleasant, and it will hurt. But, if this is the price I have to pay to get an upper hand, then I'm MORE than fine with that. Good luck.

You could recommend her to try this regime that has given 'hope' of a cure as tested by UK scientists. However it is not always guaranteed to work but hey, it would help your friend lose weight and control her diabetes: People who have had obesity-related type 2 diabetes for years have been cured, at least temporarily, by keeping to an extreme, low-calorie, diet for two months, scientists report today. The discovery, reported by scientists at Newcastle University, overturns previous assumptions about type 2 diabetes, which was thought to be a lifelong illness. In the UK about two and a half million people have been diagnosed with diabetes, the large majority with type 2, and numbers are rising across much of the world. The condition has to be controlled with drugs and eventually insulin injections. It can cause blindness and end in foot amputation, as well as shortening life. The results of the Newcastle investigation, though the study was small, demonstrated that full recovery was possible, not through drugs but through diet. Eleven people with diabetes took part in the study, which was funded by Diabetes UK. They had to slash their food intake to just 600 calories a day for two months. But three months later seven of the 11 were free of diabetes. "To have people free of diabetes after years with the condition is remarkable – and all because of an eight-week diet," said Roy Taylor, professor at Newcastle University, who led the study. "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."

If she is a Type I she can not "get rid of her diabetes". Type I diabetes comes about because the body has attacked and destroyed the Beta calls in the pancreas that produce insulin. Insulin is like a key that opens the lock on the cells to allow sugar inside .That glucose provides the energy for the body to function. No insulin means no way to get that sugar out of the blood and it spills into the urine where the body tries to eliminate it. That is why the body sends the message to the brain "I am thirsty" and "you need to urinate". Since a Type one must rely on outside sources of insulin, injections or a pump are the only options right now. If she doesn't give her body the insulin it needs to "open the door" then her liver tries to prevent starvation by burning its fat storage.The liver can only store so much fat and when that is depleted, the body can fall into a coma because it has no energy source. Diabetes Type I can not just be dieted or ignored away. This results in ketones that are a byproduct of fat burning, and the person becomes thinner and eventually dies from lack of glucose that it can use to keep vital functions like breathing and heart beat going. Limiting herself to 600 calories is not near enough to sustain the body from starvation and she will only succeed in winding up hospitalized for Ketoacidosis which can kill you, or leave you mentally retarded as it did a friend of mine. If she is markedly overweight and has been diagnosed with Type II diabetes , she can talk to her doctor about a diet that might help her get off oral meds. A Type II diabetic takes oral meds and still produces some of their own insulin. Type I diabetes is a balancing act that has to be fought every day, every meal. The researchers are working on ways to duplicate the functions of a normal pancreas but they are not there yet. Your friend wants to be around in 5 years when they may have the answer, but she won't be if she tries this diet.

That 600 calorie study certainly has a lot to answer for! It has been sensationally and misleadingly reported in the media. Having actually read the full text of the study, here is the small print - the important small print that does not get printed in the newspapers! The 600 calorie diet has been reported as a 'low cal' diet which it certainly is. However, what the media did not say was that it was also a low-carb diet. It is possible to control diabetes by eating a low-carb diet that is NOT calorie-controlled. For more details, see: http://diabetesupdate.blogspot.com/2011/06/idiotically-dangerous-diet-reverses.html Next - it was a very small study with only 11 patients. All of the patients were clinically obese. All of the patients also had early-stage Type 2 diabetes. They were all producing normal amounts of insulin, however, their bodies were not using this insulin effectively. What the diet did was to improve the patients' insulin sensitivity so that they were able to use their body's insulin properly. This means that it will not work for people who are not overweight. 20% of the world's Type 2 diabetics are NOT overweight. It will also not work for people whose diabetes has progressed. The results were seen in people who have NORMAL insulin production. However, many people with Type 2 diabetes have already lost a lot of insulin producing capability. This will not work for them. The diet did not make people produce more insulin, it just made them more sensitive to the insulin they already had on board. Finally, calling it a 'cure' is grossly misleading. The blood sugars of the patients after the study was still in the diabetic range. It was lower than it was before the study, but still diabetic. There is NO cure for diabetes. But there are effective management techniques. The most effective one for Type 2 diabetes is a low carb diet. Please see www.bloodsugar101.com to get started.

she can get a pancreas transplant, but then she'll be taking other types of medication for the rest of her life so that her body doesn't reject the new pancreas. the 600 calorie thing is a joke as is all the other commercials you see on tv that promises to help you get rid of diabetes. once you have it, you have it for the rest of your life. if she doesn't want to be skinny, then eventually, she'll have to take insulin shots. and that's something she should avoid at all costs. tell her to eat better. watch what she eats. look at the carbohydrates and sugar content. carbohydrates convent to sugar. try to find foods with a high dietary fiber. fiber helps to control the release of glucose better. she can also do more exercise. exercise converts sugar to energy.

There is no cure for type 1 or type 2 diabetes. Nothing she can do will get rid of it. She should be working with an endocrinologist, dietitian and diabetes educator. If she is a child or teen, she should look into the many diabetes camps. The one by me even had programs all year long.My daughter has type 1 and went to camp for several years.She is now 21 and still has the friends she made at camp.

You can't get rid of diabetes. You can only keep it under control, which can't be done following a 600 calorie diet.