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Obesity

Losing a single gram of fat in the pancreas can reverse Type 2 diabetes

By Chris Wood
December 08, 2015
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Reducing pancreatic fat can be highly effective in the treatment of diabetes
Shutterstock
Reducing pancreatic fat can be highly effective in the treatment of diabetes
Shutterstock

Anew study at Newcastle University in the UK has improvedour understanding of Type 2 diabetes, providing a new insight intothe positive effects that weight loss can have on sufferers.According to the researchers, reversing the condition can be assimple as losing a single gram of fat in the right place.

Type 2 diabetes affects an estimated 9 percent of the global population.It involves a build up of fat in the pancreas, which stops the organ from producing the required quantity of insulin. While it'salready known that weight loss can have a huge positive impact on thecondition, new research shows that a certain kind of weight loss isspecific to Type 2 sufferers.

Thestudy hinges on a trial involving 18 patients, half who were freefrom diabetes, and half who were Type 2 diabetes sufferers. Thepatients with the condition had been living with it for an average ofjust under seven years.

Theresearchers used a highly sensitive MRI scan to measure the amount offat present in each patient's pancreas. At the start of the study,those patients with Type 2 diabetes were found to have elevatedlevels of pancreatic fat.

Allparticipants underwent gastric bypass surgery, and after eight weeksall had lost the same amount of weight – some 13 percent of theirbody weight at the start of the study. However, a very importantdifference was observed as to where in the body the weight was lost.The amount of fat in the pancreas of a diabetes-free participantsdidn't change, but those diagnosed with the condition observed a 1.2percent drop in pancreatic fat levels.

Thefact that the decrease of fat in the pancreas is not relatedto general weight loss but is in fact specific to Type 2 diabetes, isan important discovery for treatment of the condition. But what'sperhaps most surprising is just how little of the localized fat thatsufferers need to shed to reverse the condition.

"Soif you ask how much weight you need to lose to make your diabetes goaway, the answer is one gram," says study lead Professor RoyTaylor. "But that gram needs to be fat from the pancreas. Atpresent the only way we have to achieve this is by calorierestriction by any means – whether by diet or an operation."

Theteam published its research online in the journal Diabetes Care.

Source:Newcastle University

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ObesityDiabetesWeight LossNewcastle University
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Chris Wood
Chris specializes in science and consumer technology for New Atlas, but also likes to dabble in the latest gaming gadgets. He has a degree in Politics and Ancient History from the University of Exeter, and lives in Gloucestershire, UK. In his spare time you might find him playing music, following a variety of sports or binge watching Game of Thrones.
9 comments
exodous
I guess this is why the fast and feast diet cures diabetes in some people. It is the only 'diet' that scientifically works on long term weight loss and the last place you loose weight is inside the very last.
abe
calorie restriction - makes sense, but does that include exercise where you use more than you take in.
Scion
@abe, Calorie restriction includes exercise. It is technically impossible to lose weight by exercise. I say technically because what you actually have to do is maintain the same calorie intake as prior to exercise to thus create a deficit. So the reality is you are restricting your diet to lose weight and it isn't the exercise that is doing it. Exercise in combination with controlling calories (and in general improving nutrition) is the most effective weight loss process because you don't have to change your eating habits so much but at the end of the day you are controlling diet to lose weight.
exodous
I've lost 90 lbs with calorie restriction over a year and didn't alter physical activity at all. As far as I'm concerened it is the only thing that works for me. I tried exercising daily when i was in my 20s but that didn't work either. The Michael Mosley bbc documentary about fast and feast came about because he was trying to get rid of visceral fat to prevent diabetes.
PuraVida
The ketogenic diet will probably have similar effects. It is a fat-based diet that is very low carbohydrates (less than 5%). This forces the body to switch to fat-metabolism which takes a few weeks. It is hard to comply, but is used for epilepsy, elite endurance athletes, weight lifters, people with digestive issues (i.e. IBS, etc.) and people who want to lose weight. The body will shift to metabolizing ketone bodies, which provides more ATP per unit of energy than glucose. Carbs are not necessary at all because the liver can make glucose (gluconeogenesis) to supply the red blood cells and liver which needs glucose. But the brain runs better on ketones than glucose and it also helps prevent cognitive issues such as Parkinson's & Alzheimer's. Also good for cancer patients as cancer thrives on fermented sugars, which this diet severely restricts.
habakak
Exercising moderately hard for 1 hour will burn about 600 calories. 1 Donut can have 400 to 600 calories. And it's much easier to eat 3 donuts than exercise for an hour. Restricting calories is a much easier way and more effective way to lose weight than exercising.
And the problem with exercising to lose weight is that most people exercise at way too high of an intensity level. That means you are burning mostly carbs. And because our carb supply is limited (all people, even the really skinny ones, have a virtually unlimited fat supply) which means you have to restore it. It's critical to the brain (which only burns carbs), hence the hunger pangs after workouts leading to the habit of people to overeat after exercise (I worked hard, so I can eat a lot!!!!).
Doing both is better, but focusing more on calorie restriction is where the success lies.
pmshah
By birth I am a Jain. In India we follow Lunar calendar for ALL of our rituals, religious and auspicious events and undertakings. This of course is limited to Hinduism and related religions. Jains are also very big in the food regime and fasting. If one were to follow what it suggests every month there would be at least 2 days of total fasting - close to 36 hours without any food, liquid or solid, and around 4 days of diet restriction like number of meals or what one can eat. Only input allowed in unrestricted quantity is boiled water. Mind you these are only suggestions but I am guessing were based entirely on known science for healthy living.
danmar
More nonsense from health care 'professionals', an industry that doesn't seem to know what it's doing for the most part with very specific processes applied to an infinitesimally small number of people and announced as a breakthrough.
Ava
I was diagnosed with Type II diabetes 15+ years ago. I was never insulin-dependent; however, I took Glucophage. Just 2 weeks after gastric bypass surgery in April 2004, when I'd lost approx 4-5 lbs, I stopped Glucophage. A1Cs typically run 5.2-5.4. Whether resolution of diabetes is a result of decreased fat in the pancreas or it's the small intestine that becomes the most important tissue for glucose use and this decreases blood sugar levels (Stylopoulos, 2013), clearly more research is needed.
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