Potentially massive news for those who suffer Type 2 diabetes — you may be able to reverse it, without the “help” of Big Pharma and their medications. Val Willingham reports for CNN:
When Jonathan Legg of Bethesda, Maryland, got a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes at 39, he was shocked. “I had always been pretty active,” said Legg. “But it was a big wake-up call, that what I was doing and my current weight were not OK.”
That was two years ago. Since that time, the Morgan Stanley executive decided to make some changes and reverse his diabetes. Although his doctor recommended he go on medication to control his illness, Legg took a different approach. Instead of meds, he began to exercise every day and changed his diet, cutting out alcohol, fatty foods and watching his carbs.
“I wanted to be able to know the changes I was making were making a difference, and it wasn’t the drug,” said Legg.
According to new statistics just out from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 25.8 million people, or 8.3% of the U.S. population, are affected by either type 1 or type 2 diabetes. Most, like Legg, have type 2 diabetes, which in many people develops later in life. Caused primarily by genetic makeup, a sedentary lifestyle and poor eating habits, type 2 diabetes can be reversed in some cases. By making changes to their lives such as adding exercise and improving their diets, many type 2 diabetics can drop their glucose or sugar numbers back to the normal range, reversing their condition.
“We have seen numerous people reverse their condition,” says Dr. Michelle Magee, director of the MedStar Diabetes Institute in Washington. “But it takes a real dedication for the rest of their lives,” she notes.
So why do exercise and diet help reverse diabetes? To answer that question, we first need to know why people get diabetes in the first place.