Fasting: A superior alternative to classic weight-loss plans for Type 2 diabetes

Intermittent fasting can be risky for some. But there is now evidence that it is a helpful, or even superior, alternative to classic weight-loss plans for people with Type 2 diabetes.

Doctors often advise people with Type 2 diabetes to lose weight, which can have beneficial effects on blood glucose and insulin sensitivity, as well as on the progression of the disease. For this and other reasons, experts are actively looking at the effects of intermittent fasting among people with Type 2 diabetes.

Benjamin Horne, director of cardiovascular and genetic epidemiology at Intermountain Healthcare in Utah, has co-authored several recent papers on the effects of intermittent fasting among people with diabetes.

Based on his and others’ work, Horne says that for most people with Type 2 diabetes—particularly those who are not taking medications to control their blood sugar—the research indicates that intermittent fasting is both safe and likely to be beneficial.

Brian -Corley, a diabetes specialist at Capital & Coast District Health Board in New Zealand, says intermittent fasting plans aren’t necessarily off the table for these patients; they just require a little more care. Meanwhile, his study has found that intermittent fasting aided weight loss and improved measures of fasting blood sugar, hemoglobin A1C, and overall quality of life.

While hidden dangers could emerge, intermittent fasting—with expert oversight—seems to be safe for most people with Type 2 diabetes.

The benefits of intermittent fasting

While intermittent fasting may present risks for some, it could also provide benefits over and above other approaches. A 2017 study in the World Journal of Diabetes found that just two weeks of intermittent fasting led to significant weight loss (more than 3 lb., on average) as well as improvements in glucose levels.

Research supports this hypothesis. Some work on people with diabetes has found that intermittent fasting may increase insulin sensitivity and also reduce insulin levels in the blood. This is a big deal. “Essentially, fasting is doing what we prescribe diabetes medications to do, which is to improve insulin sensitivity,” Horne says.

At least one small trial (of just three people) found that adopting an intermittent fasting diet allowed diabetes patients to stop taking their insulin drugs altogether. That study’s findings still need to be replicated in a larger group. However, these sorts of results are encouraging.

How could fasting produce these benefits? There are a handful of theories, and several of them may turn out to be true. One of the leading hypotheses—which is already supported by solid research—is that fasting kicks off a kind of cellular cleansing process that removes old or unhealthy cells and allows new ones to flourish.

Based on this work, some experts argue that the human body isn’t designed for the modern food environment and its three-meals-a-day-plus-snacks eating schedule. They say intermittent fasting may more closely resemble the way humans ate for most of our species’ history.

More work is needed to iron all this out. But the research to date indicates that intermittent fasting may provide unique and meaningful health improvements for people with Type 2 diabetes.

Source: Time

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