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Can Diabetes be Reversed?
Most people say once a diabetic is always a diabetic. Not only that you are expected to leave your favourite food, rely on medicines, and even take daily insulin shots. Besides that, you will also have to go through the complications of diabetes such as nerve damage, kidney damage, vision loss, amputation, and even heart attack. But do you really need to put yourself through all this? Can you do something to reverse diabetes? Is it possible to go back to your life before diabetes?
Let’s first look into:
What Causes Diabetes?
Simply put, Diabetes is the excess of glucose or sugar in your blood. So where does this glucose come from? The food we eat breaks down into glucose or sugar. Insulin is a hormone that transports glucose from the blood to the cells for energizing different parts of the body.
Now, if your body doesn’t produce insulin OR your cells stop accepting glucose delivery by insulin cells, the sugar level in the blood will rise drastically.
The first condition in which your body produces no or limited insulin is called type 1 diabetes
The second condition is called Type 2 diabetes. In Type 2 diabetes, the carbohydrates coming from your food and drink are broken into glucose. The pancreas then releases insulin but the cells somehow become insulin resistant i.e stop accepting glucose delivery from insulin.
Because this insulin is not used properly, the blood glucose keeps rising so furthermore insulin is released. For some people with type 2 diabetes, this can eventually tire the pancreas out meaning the body then makes less and less Insulin which leads to even higher blood glucose levels. This is called insulin resistance.
To summarize 2 reasons that lead to diabetes:
1 Lack of insulin
2 Insulin-resistance
Can You Reverse Your Diabetes?
Now the question arises that can diabetes is reversed? Can it be kicked out of your life forever and ever? Many of you may be surprised if the answer is “yes” to the question.
But trust me, diabetes reversal is possible. Though, reversal of Type 2 is easier compared to Type 1.
How To Reverse Diabetes?
How to do it then? Well with some simple and practical methods, you can reverse your diabetes.
Diabetes reversal is a journey. You need to go slow, and make changes to your diet and lifestyle habits to make this happen:
Let’s dive into this one by one. We will first talk about diet changes. The first is:
Implement Portion Control
Often we eat a lot more calories or sugar than actually required by the body for its proper functioning. Studies have proved that avoiding excessive eating or taking in only the required calorie diet has helped people reduce blood sugar levels
What happens when your body reduces the calorie intake of food?
Of course, one of the perks is that you start losing some weight.
But at the same time, your body starts using the existing fat. The fat stored in your liver and pancreas decreases. This further helps the cells in the pancreas to release insulin.
A person leading a sedentary lifestyle, should not consume more than about 1200 -1800 calories a day. However, counting on calories can be extremely tough and irritating sometimes.
Therefore, we would like to suggest some very practical things that you can implement:
- Avoid overeating at all times We all know when we are full, so no need to go for that extra bite because of peer pressure or cravings!
- Use smaller plates.
- Eat slowly
It is also advised that you make a diet plan based on your lifestyle, and eat only the required calories a day. You can do this on our app.
Increase Your Fibre Intake
Fibre slows carb digestion and sugar absorption. For these reasons, it promotes a more gradual rise in blood sugar levels.
Additionally, a high fibre diet can help better manage by improving the body’s ability to regulate blood sugar and helps reduce situations of extreme highs as well as extremely low blood sugar levels.
Multiple types of research suggest that eating fibre-rich foods has explicitly been shown to reduce blood sugar levels by 5-10%.
The recommended daily intake of fibre is about 25 grams for women and 38 grams for men.
Foods that are high in fibre include:
- Whole grains
- Legumes
- Vegetables
- Fruits
A complete list of fibre-rich foods can be downloaded from our app.
Shift To A Carb Free Diet
Multiple types of research also propose shifting to a protein and fat-rich diet, instead of carbohydrates or carbs.
Carbohydrates directly get converted to glucose and thus increase the sugar levels in your body. When you eat carbs, your body uses them as fuel in the first place. But when you stop taking carbs, this triggers the breakdown of fat and protein to release energy. This is called ketosis
For this, you can follow, carb-free diet. When you start a carb-free diet, previously stored body fat is also burned, which in turn results in immediate weight loss.
However, being carb-free is not for everyone. It depends on multiple factors including the level of ketones in your body, your diabetes levels, and medications. You can consult a dietician & diabetes doctor on our app to check for eligibility for this.
The glycemic index or GI is a value assigned to foods based on how slowly or how quickly those foods cause increases in blood glucose levels. Foods that are high on the glycemic index release glucose rapidly.
Diabetic patients should eat foods low on the GI scale, as they tend to release glucose slowly and steadily. The slow and steady release of glucose prevents spikes in blood sugar and helps good glucose control.
GI values are generally divided into three categories.
Eat Foods With The Low Glycemic Index
- Low GI: 1 to 55
- Medium GI: 56 to 69
- High GI: 70 and higher.
Apart from GI, you should also look at glycemic load (GL). This depends on the number of carbs or sugar in that food. This value estimates how much the food will raise a person’s blood glucose level after eating it. One unit of glycemic load equals the effect of eating one gram of glucose.
In summary, consider both while making your food plan, the glycemic index and glycemic load. As mentioned earlier, also look at the fibre content in the food.
Considering all these factors, we would advise the following foods to help reverse diabetes:
1) Whole grains
Whole grains include Oats, barley, and bulgur wheat. They should be the primary component of a diabetic diet. Whole-grain foods contain a GI value of 45, instead of normal grains with a GI value of 77 that get absorbed easily.
2) Proteins-rich foods such as Beans, lentils, Legumes.
3) For Fats you should prefer nuts and seeds and unsaturated oil (like olive oil, sunflower oil, canola oil, soybean oil), fatty fish like salmon, tuna, and mackerel)
4) Non-starchy vegetables such as are Spinach, mushrooms, and broccoli & Capsicum
5) Fruits with low GI include all kinds of berries such as blueberries, strawberries, etc.
Most of us believe that we need to place food restrictions to win diabetes. But that is not the case. It’s not about restriction, in fact, it is about the right replacement. there are thousands of fruits, juices, and meals that you can have as a diabetic. You can find the complete list on the diabetes mantra app. Not only that, if you are unable to find these foods in your local market, you can also shop them at our app.
So, that’s it for the food and diet changes. The next step toward winning from diabetes is a lifestyle change. They play an equally important role in reversing your diabetes.
Exercise Regularly
To reverse your diabetes, the importance of regular exercise can’t be undermined.
Daily exercise reduces insulin resistance. Exercise activates your cell to accept and consume glucose or sugar running in your bloodstream.
We would advise at least 30-40 mins of exercise per day to every diabetic patient. Start with brisk walking. Keep a target of 5,000 steps per day.
Later, we would advise a combination of yoga, walking & other diabetes-friendly exercises. You can check out the exercise u need in the diabetes mantra app.
Reduce Your Stress Level
Let’s come to the next step in your diabetes reversal journey – i.e reducing stress levels.
Stress gives rise to a hormone called Cortisol. Cortisol acts opposite the action of insulin. i.e the prevent movement of sugar from the bloodstream to the cells. This result in higher blood sugar levels
So, in order to maintain your blood sugar level, you need to manage your stress.
You can do this by maintaining a work-life balance, doing yoga daily, and practising meditation therapy.
Get Enough Quality Sleep
Getting enough sleep feels excellent and is necessary for good health
Poor sleeping habits and a lack of rest can also affect blood sugar levels and insulin sensitivity. They can increase appetite and promote weight gain
Sleep deprivation decreases the release of growth hormones and increases cortisol levels. Both of these play an essential role in blood sugar management. As mentioned before, Cortisol opposes the action of insulin, and thus increases blood sugar levels.
Furthermore, adequate sleep is about both quantity and quality. It’s best to get a sufficient amount of high-quality sleep every night. For adults, we would advise at least 7-8 hours of sound sleep.
Drink Lots of Water
Drinking enough water even for a normal body is very necessary. But when we talk about diabetics, it becomes even more important. Why so?
When you drink lots of water, you tend to pee a lot. And your kidney flushes out extra glucose with the urine, hence maintaining the blood sugar levels.
Also, drinking enough water reduces the risk of dehydration.
What quantity of water would be enough for you? On average, a diabetic person should take at least 10 glasses of water per day.
Practise Fasting
Fasting for a diabetic person? Sounds impractical and dangerous. Right? You have always heard that eating in short intervals helps you “maintain” blood sugar levels. Yes, it’s true, but just for maintaining diabetes for all your life. And if you want to reverse diabetes, you need to fast.
Fasting gives time to the pancreas to recover and increase insulin sensitivity.
It provides time to clean your body, that is, to detox it. Also, it could help with weight loss, and lower cholesterol.
The most common type of fasting is known as the 16:8 method, which involves fasting for 16 hours and reducing the eating window to just 8 hours.
For example, a person can have dinner at approximately 7 p.m. and do breakfast at around 11 a.m the next day. He is free to drink water, and smoothies in the interim to keep him hydrated and active.
A study conducted in Canada and published in the journal BMJ Case Reports, suggests that intermittent fasting proves to be an effective method in reducing blood sugar levels in patients.
Other forms involve fasting for 2 days per week, 24-hour fasting once or twice each week, and fasting every other day.
To summarize let me repeat all the steps for you:
1 Implement portion control
2 Increase your fiber intake
3 Shift to a Carb Free diet
4 Eat foods low glycemic index
5 Exercise Regularly
6 Reduce your stress level
7 Get enough quality sleep
8 Drink lots of water
9 Practise fasting
Thousands of people across the world have been able to successfully reverse their diabetes by following the above steps have. That’s said, diabetes reversal is a journey and requires commitment for at least 6months to start seeing the results. Also, we understand that implementing these steps can be a daunting task.
A Word From MantraCare
Do you want to get rid of diabetes? Join our online diabetes consultation program and reverse your Diabetes naturally through lifestyle changes such as a Personalized Diet plan, Exercise, dieticians, and health coaches.
