My friend thinks her type 2 will disappear! How is that possible??

I don't know if it will actually disappear but it could become controlled by diet and exercise.  That is what our physician has stated anyway.

 Is she taking medication now?  Is she controlling her blood pressure and cholesterol also?

She is lucky to have a caring friend like you to help her through a very tough time ahead.

Hi:

Thanks for the replies there! My friend is currently on Metformin twice a day. Her A1C went up last time to 6.6. She needs to lose about 70 pounds and start eating right. I don't think she is doing a lot to control her cholesterol and she doesn't have high blood pressure. She also never tests very much, but I am trying to encourage her.

I told her just how serious my own type 2 was. I now take Byetta injections along with several pills to control it and still have high sugars sometimes-even with eating right. I test my sugars 6-8 times a day. I hope this will rub off on her!

Jennifer

Type 2 diabetes can be reversed. Dr.Neal Barnard has a new book out on how to totally reverse diabetes and even type 1's can also be helped.
Another great book to read is 'the china study'. Very informative.
I for one don't intend to take meds for the rest of my life so i am doing something about it. As it is now, i am borderline diabetic, but don't have it. Borderline high cholesterol and i have high blood pressure. I only take blood pressure lowering meds, but not for long.

You are all pretty much on the same page so you are finally understanding this disease. I like the use of 'controlled' and 'reversed' instead of cured in everybody's writing.

Jennifer, you might want to give your friend encouragement and support. Send her here... but do your best not to be the food police. That will break up your friendship lickety-split and she will just spiral further down into denial. Been there... done that....

Sandy,
You probably know more about diabetes than your doctor IMHO. He would really have a problem with Warren... a type 2 of excellent health who had like 3% body fat when he was diagnosed type 2. Some of the current thought is that the diabetes causes the obesity which then perpetuates the insulin resistance. If diabetes is an "anti-famine" mechanism run amuck then this makes perfect sense.

Before animal domestication and agriculture our metabolisms were programmed to eat protein, fruit and vegetables, the things that could be found and consumed without storage or production. Our bodies adapted to grain storage and breads or carbs over time with lots of daily movement necessary to live and thrive. Since the industrial revolution and the electronic age our calorie need has greatly decreased while our food availability had dramatically increased. Without proper dietary & exercise education our future generations are all going to be doing this wonderful dance we are doing.

I think that if children today were shown how much activity children of 100 years ago had such as chopping the firewood or shoveling coal, feeding chickens and minding the family horse, stairs, walking everywhere, washing clothes, sweeping floors, carrying water for bathing... and how much food they ate... Then they compared it to their lives today it would help them understand that they don't need sugared cereals or soda with sugar, cookies and pop tarts with icing. It might start them on a life of correct eating... I think I'm gonna write a children's book about diabetes for my grand children... One set has three diabetic grandparents out of four...

Interesting. I have a friend who was diagnosed with Diabetes about 7 years ago. She went on a low-carb, low calory diet, began an intensive exercise program and dropped 70 pounds. When she was diagnosed her sugars were 300 and up. She was put of metformin 4 times a day (500mg each time). After dropping 70 pounds her sugars went down to 70-100. She has been able to keep the weight off by exercising 3 times a week for 30 minutes, and watching what she eats. She does allow herself some sweets such as M&M's or a slice of chocolate pie (but not often). She no longer takes the metformin. Her doctor says while she is still diabetic (glucose tolerance test) it is controlled.

marburg

Thanks Jeannie,

Yes my friend has to be especially careful when she gets sick. She says her sugars go back up when she is stressed or sick but she's been able to bring them back down by carefully monitoring her sugars (sometimes 6-12 times a day) during those period and watching what and how much she eats.

Marburg