A new study discovered that weight loss really can cure diabetes. In a paper published in the Lancet, researchers in the United Kingdom discovered that patients with Type 2 diabetes went into remission when they lost weight, Time reports.
Half of the patients in the study went on a 6-month diet plan, while the other half did not. Those that dieted and lost an average of 30 pounds saw their diabetes start to disappear. None of the patients took any daibetes medication for the disease during the study and instead focused exclusively on the effects of weight loss on the chronic condition.
The diet involved three to five months of a liquid diet averaging no more than 850 calories a day, followed by two to eight weeks of reintroducing food. Patients were also given nutritional education and cognitive behavioral therapy.
Researchers hope to point out with the study that diabetes doesn’t have to be a life-long sentence, and instead is something that can be fought with hard work. However, the weight loss treatment is only effective if done during the first few years of the onset of Type 2 diabetes. Patients who have been living with the disease for 10 years or more have also suffered a loss of some cells which make the weight loss method alone ineffective.