November 21, 2018 – Fasting and Insulin

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Anchor lead: Can fasting help people with type 2 diabetes get off insulin? Elizabeth Tracey reports

Three people with type 2 diabetes who were taking insulin to manage their condition were able to eliminate it with a regimen of fasting, a recent study reported. Rita Kalyani, a diabetes expert at Johns Hopkins, describes the intervention.

Kalyani: In this report of three patients with type 2 diabetes who all were on insulin and oral agents, their clinicians prescribed a treatment of therapeutic fasting. And interestingly what they found was in these three patients who had alternate days of fasting, where they had one meal and followed a low carbohydrate diet, these patients had tremendous weight loss, 10 to 15 % weight loss, after a month, and all of them were able to get off insulin.  :29

Kalyani says she was surprised by this result as once people have been taking oral medications and insulin for some time their ability to make their own insulin wanes. She cautions that this is a regimen that requires medical oversight, so don’t try it on your own. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.