Thaindian News

London, June 24 (IANS) Diabetic patients who consumed just 600 calories a day were able to live without their pills at the end of a two-month trial, say experts.

Eleven men and women with type 2 diabetes were put on a diet of 600 calories a day for eight weeks. After just a week, some of their blood sugar readings had returned to normal, Daily Mail reported quoting the journal Diabetologia.

After two months, fat levels in the pancreas returned to normal and the organ was able to pump out insulin without any problem. Some patients no longer needed tablets to control high blood pressure, it said.

The Newcastle University researchers described the result as remarkable.

In type 2 diabetes, the pancreas does not make enough insulin, a hormone key in the conversion of sugar into energy, and the insulin that is made does not work properly.

Over two million Britons suffer from the condition. It is often controlled initially with a stringent diet and exercise regime. But many sufferers eventually need tablets or insulin injections.

Diabetics are more likely to develop heart disease, blindness, kidney disease and nerve and circulatory damage, which at its worst can lead to amputations.

“While it has long been believed that the disease will steadily get worse, we have shown that we can reverse it,” the Mail said Friday quoting Roy Taylor, the study’s lead author.

Three months after the end of the diet, seven of the 11 men and women were still diabetes-free.

However, Iain Frame, of Diabetes UK, the charity for people with diabetes, which funded the study, warned that no one should go on such a drastic diet without speaking to his or her doctor.