Is Intermittent Fasting Safe For People With Diabetes?

Is Intermittent Fasting Safe for People With Diabetes?

When the now 46-year-old Mary Roberts from Lockhart, Texas, was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in 2008, her doctor immediately put her on Metformin (glucophage), a drug to help stabilize blood sugar. “When I got the diagnosis, I guess I wasn’t surprised,” says Roberts, explaining that not only was she overweight but her mom had been on insulin for type 2 diabetes.
Not wanting to be on medication herself for her entire life, Roberts set out on a path to control the diabetes through diet, but a few years of nutrition classes proved unsuccessful in lowering her blood sugar level. It was after her doctor suggested insulin on top of the high dose of Metformin that Roberts switched gears. “I really wanted to find a way to get healthy,” she says.
She found the solution in changing her approach to eating — just not the way she expected. Intermittent fasting (IF) combined with the popular ketogenic diet, which emphasizes dramatically reducing carbohydrate intake, helped her lose weight and lower her A1C. “I feel amazing,” Roberts says.
What Is Intermittent Fasting and How Is It Done?
Although IF has become more popular in recent years, the diet plan isn’t new. In fact, many religions (including Christianity, Judaism, and Islam) have followers who practice fasting of some variety throughout the year. Fasting is often required for blood tests, medical procedures, or surgery. The reason IF has gained so much attention recently is likely due to the release of new diet books plugging the plans and celebrity endorsements. “I think that it has gained popularity because Continue reading

Rate this article

Total 1 ratings

Diabetes: Most NHS costs wasteful, says Diabetic Medicine

The majority of NHS spending on diabetes is avoidable, says a report in the journal Diabetic Medicine.
It suggests that 80% of the NHS's £9.8bn annual UK diabetes bill goes on the cost of treating complications.
Experts say much of this is preventable with health checks and better education - something the Department of Health says it is tackling.
The report also predicts that by 2035, diabetes will cost the NHS £16.8bn, 17% of its entire budget.
If this rise in diabetes is allowed to continue, it will simply be disastrous for NHS budgetsBaroness Barbara Young, Chief executive of Diabetes UK
BBC Health: Diabetes treatment
There are 3.8 million people living with diabetes in the UK.
The study looked at annual direct patient care costs for both types of diabetes, with Type 2 at £8.8bn being far higher than that of Type 1 at £1bn.
Both Type 1 diabetes, which tends to appear in childhood, and Type 2 diabetes, often linked to diet, lead to problems controlling the amount of sugar in the blood.
Complications occur when people with diabetes sustain high levels of glucose over a long period. This can lead to increased chances of developing disease-related complications, such as kidney failure, nerve damage, damage to the retina, stroke and cardiovascular disease.
Budget crash
Baroness Barbara Young, from Diabetes UK - one of the charities involved in the Impact Diabetes report - said: "The report shows that without urgent action, the already huge sums of money spent on treating diabetes will rise to unsustainable levels that threaten to bankrupt the NHS.
"If this rise in diabet Continue reading

Effects of intermittent fasting on health markers in those with type 2 diabetes: A pilot study

Go to:
Abstract
To determine the short-term biochemical effects and clinical tolerability of intermittent fasting (IF) in adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).
We describe a three-phase observational study (baseline 2 wk, intervention 2 wk, follow-up 2 wk) designed to determine the clinical, biochemical, and tolerability of IF in community-dwelling volunteer adults with T2DM. Biochemical, anthropometric, and physical activity measurements (using the Yale Physical Activity Survey) were taken at the end of each phase. Participants reported morning, afternoon and evening self-monitored blood glucose (SMBG) and fasting duration on a daily basis throughout all study stages, in addition to completing a remote food photography diary three times within each study phase. Fasting blood samples were collected on the final days of each study phase.
At baseline, the ten participants had a confirmed diagnosis of T2DM and were all taking metformin, and on average were obese [mean body mass index (BMI) 36.90 kg/m2]. We report here that a short-term period of IF in a small group of individuals with T2DM led to significant group decreases in weight (-1.395 kg, P = 0.009), BMI (-0.517, P = 0.013), and at-target morning glucose (SMBG). Although not a study requirement, all participants preferentially chose eating hours starting in the midafternoon. There was a significant increase (P < 0.001) in daily hours fasted in the IF phase (+5.22 h), although few attained the 18-20 h fasting goal (mean 16.82 ± 1.18). The increased fasting duration improved at-goal (< 7.0 mmol/L) morning SMBG to Continue reading

How to Care for Cuts and Scratches If You Have Diabetes

If you have diabetes, you may want to be a little more cautious about taking care of simple cuts, scratches, scrapes and bruises. In fact, skin care of any kind is important to your health.
Bruises are the simplest to address. As long as the skin is not broken, you really don’t need to do much of anything, except keep an eye on the area.
“A bruise is a bruise and will act like a bruise and go through the different changes in color over time,” says dermatologist Christine Poblete-Lopez, MD. “So being diabetic does not necessarily mean it will lengthen the way a bruise will resolve or not.”
If you have any type of laceration, however, you should keep a keen watch for infections because diabetics are more prone to developing infections, according to Dr. Poblete-Lopez. The signs of infection to look for around the cut are redness, warmth, tenderness and pus drainage.
“If you have any of those signs, you definitely need to bring it to the attention of your doctor, because you may need oral antibiotics,” she says.
A diabetes specialist’s approach
There are some differences of opinion among diabetes experts and dermatologists when it comes to healing wounds, so we will take a look at both.
When cleaning out a cut, for example, diabetes specialist Leann Olansky, MD, says to wash the cut with soap and water and then add an over-the-counter topical antibiotic such as Neosporin® or a prescription ointment such as Bactroban® to help prevent bacteria from entering into your subcutaneous tissue.
The next step for Dr. Olansky is to cover the cut with a bandage to keep it Continue reading

Benefits of Olive Oil Consumption in Type 2 Diabetes Treatment

Worldwide, type 2 diabetes is at epidemic proportions, with over 300 million already having the condition with an estimated rise to 600 million diagnosed cases by the year 2030.
Information regarding reduced risk of type 2 diabetes is fairly common. However, finding information regarding treatment and management for an individual who already has type 2 diabetes can be somewhat more difficult.
Therefore, this article is designed as a mini literature review of sorts, pointing to some of the recent research around olive oil and its potential benefits for use as a dietary intervention in type 2 diabetes treatment.
Endoplasmic reticulum stress (ER) is a central mediator for pancreatic beta-cell dysfunction in type 2 diabetes. An in vitro study published in Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, 2016, investigated if tyrosol, an antioxidant polyphenolic compound found in olive oil, could protect against beta-cell dysfunction. Researchers found that tyrosol did in fact protect against beta-cell ER stress-induced cell death, suggesting that it should be explored as a therapeutic agent for improving insulin resistance and diabetes.
Insulin resistance (IR) is one of the major contributors to difficulties in maintaining blood glucose control. A study published in Diabetologia, 2015, randomized 642 patients to either an olive oil enriched Mediterranean diet (MedDiet) (35 percent fat; 22 percent from monounsaturated fat) or a low-fat diet (less than 28 percent fat) to determine whether dietary intervention effects tissue-specific IR and beta-cell function. The study found Continue reading