Can Type 2 Diabetes Be Reversed?

The number of Americans who have diabetes continues to rise, and the condition now affects more than 40 million people in the United States. Of this number, most have type 2 diabetes, which is an acquired version of the condition as opposed to one that you’re born with.

Given that type 2 diabetes is acquired, many people wonder whether they can undo everything that led to the diagnosis to hit the reset button on their health. Well, the answer is complex, but we can say that any steps that you take to manage, if not reverse, diabetes are steps well worth taking.

To paint a clearer picture, we turn to diabetes expert Dr. Scott Lafferty, who routinely helps patients at Lafferty Family Care to better navigate this condition. When it comes to reversing type 2 diabetes, here’s what we want you to know.

Understanding type 2 diabetes

To answer the questions about reversing type 2 diabetes, we should first fully understand what occurs when you develop this disease.

Under normal circumstances, your body takes in carbohydrates and converts them to glucose, which acts as your body’s fuel on a cellular level. To feed this energy into your body, your pancreas produces insulin, which is a hormone that delivers glucose from your blood to your cells. Your body then stores any excess glucose in your liver and in your muscles.

When your blood sugar levels drop, your pancreas releases a hormone called glucagon, which prompts your liver to release the stored glucose.

The key to this glucose system is balance, and type 2 diabetes is a prime example of what happens when there’s an imbalance. More specifically, if you overwhelm your body with too many carbs and sugars, excess fat can accumulate in your liver and pancreas. 

This fat disrupts the production and action of insulin, creating a resistance to the hormone. As a result, your liver keeps releasing glucose, which can lead to dangerously high levels that can lead to no small amount of organ damage since there isn’t enough insulin to keep these levels down. This is why many patients often rely on insulin medications.

The keys to managing type 2 diabetes

We went into a little bit of the science behind diabetes because it's easier to explain how to improve glucose balance in your body.

The key is to tackle the insulin resistance, which you can do by:

• Regulating the amount of carbs and sugars you eat
• Losing weight to help your liver and pancreas function better

We can also throw exercise on this list, which helps your body better use glucose, and it also prevents fat from building up.

Getting the right tools in place for combating insulin resistance

Now, let's get into the question of whether type 2 diabetes can be cured. For a long time, we’ve spoken about type 2 diabetes as something that we manage or put into remission. These days, more medical experts are talking in terms of total reversal and even using the word “cure.”

Putting words aside for a moment, our goal is to encourage you to follow this healthy path toward managing and reversing your type 2 diabetes, but it requires commitment. 

To reverse your insulin resistance, we have some great tools at our disposal that can help you lose weight and better manage blood sugar levels, such as GLP-1 medications.

These medications, along with your commitment to diet and exercise, can effectively put your type 2 diabetes in the rearview mirror as your body restores balance and responds to your own insulin better. In fact, studies show that if you maintain your diet efforts and weight loss, there’s a good chance that you can maintain your great results over the long-term.

The best way to get started is to sit down with Dr. Lafferty so that he can tailor a much more personalized plan of attack for overcoming your insulin resistance. 

To get started on better controlling your type 2 diabetes, we invite you to schedule an appointment at our office in Rogers, Arkansas.