A team of researchers in the UK has found that it is possible to reverse Type 2 diabetes through a low calorie diet program, without any help from medications.

The study, which was funded by Diabetes UK, was led by Professor Roy Taylor from Newcastle University and Professor Mike Lean from the University of Glasgow. They presented their findings at the International Diabetes Federation Congress in Abu Dhabi on December 5.

The study is published in The Lancet.

A Deadly Condition

In 2011, Isobel Murray, 65, was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, a bodily condition that causes sugar levels to rise higher than normal.

“I was on various medications which were constantly increasing and I was becoming more and more ill every day,” Murray said in a statement.

Murray is one of millions suffering from Type 2 diabetes. According to 2015 figures released by Diabetes.org, among adults 20 years or older in the U.S., approximately one in every 10 has diabetes. Among seniors, 65 years or older, one in every four has diabetes. Between 90 to 95 percent of people diagnosed with diabetes have Type 2 diabetes.

Although preventable and curable, Type 2 diabetes can be deadly when left unmanaged. The condition can often lead to cardiovascular diseases, kidney disease or stroke. It is expected that a person with Type 2 diabetes may live 10 years less than a person without the condition. In 2015, diabetes was ranked as the seventh leading cause of death in the U.S.

In 2014, after suffering from this deadly condition for two to three years, Murray was asked by her general practitioner (GP) to take part in a two-year Diabetes Remission Clinical Trial (DiRECT), whose purpose is to find an effective and accessible way to achieve Type 2 diabetes remission for the long term.

“When the opportunity came to go on the DiRECT study, I had absolutely no hesitation,” she said in a statement.

Murray participated in the trial from 2014 to 2016.

What did DiRECT Involve?

The trial included a low calorie, balanced diet for three to five months, reintroduction of food and long-term support to maintain weight loss to fight off Type 2 diabetes.

DiRECT recruited 298 Type 2 diabetes patients, who were invited by their GPs.

“Usually this produces less than a 10% response, but for DiRECT, 27% of people responded, indicating an interest in helping,” Taylor told The University Network (TUN).

Half the participants received standard diabetes care from their GPs and the other half received a structured weight management program delivered entirely within primary care.

The trial builds on Taylor’s previous studies on the underlying cause of Type 2 diabetes, an increased amount of fat inside the liver and pancreas. So the trial directly targets reducing fat inside the two organs to bring them back to normal function.

And when they maintain this low calorie diet for long enough, the results show that the participants can not only better manage Type 2 diabetes, but also achieve remission.

“These findings are very exciting,” Taylor said in a statement. “They could revolutionize the way Type 2 diabetes is treated.”

Achieving Remission

Remission from Type 2 diabetes is defined as having sugar levels of less than 6.5 percent at 12 months, with at least two months without any Type 2 diabetes medications.

Nearly half — 45.6 percent — of DiRECT participants were able to stop taking their Type 2 diabetes medications.

Significant weight loss seemed to cause remission. While 57 percent of those who lost 10-15 kilograms and 34 percent of those who lost 5-10 kilograms during the program achieved remission, just 4 percent of the control group who lost less than 5 kilograms achieved remission.

Having lost more than 22 kilograms over a two-year period, Murray achieved remission and no longer takes any diabetes medications.

“I don’t think of myself as a diabetic anymore, I get all my diabetes checks done, but I don’t feel like a diabetic,” said Murray in a statement. “I am one of the lucky ones to have gone into remission.”

“DiRECT is telling us it could be possible for as many as half of patients to achieve this in routine primary care, and without drugs,” Lean said in a statement.

Future Areas of Study

Across Tyneside and Scotland, DiRECT is being delivered as a two-year program through GPs. The researchers will continue to focus on why weight loss causes remission.

“Everyone can be told at the time of diagnosis of Type 2 diabetes that the condition is potentially able to be put into remission,” Taylor told TUN. “This is a frameshift from the present when people are told they have a life-long, irreversible condition which will get steadily worse, needing insulin therapy on average in 10 years.”

The team hopes to reflect the study’s successful findings in real life primary care settings so many more people suffering from Type 2 diabetes can achieve remission.