complications after a decade or more.
But Howarth is hopeful. This is a major
breakthrough. Until relatively recently,
the idea that patients could come off
insulin was seen as wishful thinking.
“Everyone thought I was nuts at the
time,” says Sally Hope, a retired GP.
Hope was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes
more than two decades ago, aged just
- She had recognised the symptoms –
fatigue, thirst. “And I realised I needed
to think about this”.
But her GP, unusually, didn’t put her on
Do: Lift heavy
Running isn’t the quickest route to
health. Mayo Clinic found weight
training and improved strength can
reduce your risk of type 2 by 33%.
Don’t: Binge on protein
You may think lean meat is an ally,
but all excess calories raise your
risk. Research suggests a plant-
based diet cuts your risk by 23%.Do: Eat in the morning
Routine is key. A Harvard study
found people who ate breakfast
every day were half as likely to get
diabetes as those who skipped it.Don’t: Fear cheese
A 2018 study analysis in Plos One
found those with the highest dairy
intakes had a 30% lower diabetes
risk than those who avoided it.Do: Prioritise sleep
An animal study in Japan showed
just one night’s missed sleep
could alter enzymes in the liver
and raise your chance of diabetes.“Of those who have
been diagnosed
with type 2, only
16% proactively
asked for a test”
medication and
instead suggested
a change of diet,
a suggestion that
Hope didn’t take
well. She wasn’t
overweight and
felt she ate fairly
well. But then she
noticed that she often defaulted to sugar
and carbs without thinking about it – a
shop-bought sandwich here, a shortbread
there. “I cut out all of the sugar,” she says.
“I was really strict.” She even swapped
out pasta for grated veg to cut down
on carbs. “And, just like that, my blood
sugar went back to normal.” Since then,
three of her own patients – all, she notes,
doctors themselves – have gone into
remission using diet.
SWING YOUR ODDS
There are smarter ways to curb
your risk than cutting out sweets
CASE STUDY #02
“Not eating for three months
isn’t something to enter into
lightly” Joe McSorleyJoe was diagnosed with
type 2 diabetes in 2014.
He had been largely
symptom-free, just like
Yian Jones and thousands
of others before them, but
following a consultation with
his optician about changes
in his prescription, he was
advised to speak to his GP.
The diagnosis came as
a shock. He was fairly fit
at the time: “I did plenty of
walking and played five-a-
side a couple of times a week,
although I was carrying a bit
of excess weight,” he says.
Two years into his
treatment, Joe was offereda chance to take part in the
Diabetes Remission Clinical
Trial: 12 weeks subsisting on
low-calorie shakes and soup.
“Not eating for three months
isn’t something to enter into
lightly, so I wanted to be
sure I could see it through
to the conclusion,” he says.
“I don’t believe in doing
things in half measures.”
The trial had a remarkable
effect. Within the first week,
Joe had lost 1.5kg. “After that,
the weight loss became more
dramatic.” Ten weeks later, he
had lost more than a fifth of
his bodyweight, from 93kg
down to 73kg. His diabetes
went into remission.
But, he says, that was
the easy part. “The hard part
was getting back to eating
normally.” It took a major
overhaul of his mindset – “I
no longer feel I have to finisha meal if I’ve had enough” –
and he expects it will be
a lifelong effort. Joe is
also much more active
now, and says that at
age 58 he is probably
fitter than he was at 21.
When he retires from his job
as an engineer, he plans to
become a personal trainer
and lifestyle coach. While he
was lucky enough to have the
willpower and support of his
family to keep up his lifestyle
changes, he believes society
needs to do much more –
to educate people about the
risks of diabetes, to show
how it can be beaten, and
to reduce the temptations
for people to overeat. “I think
the food industry could
be brought into line by
the government,” he says.98 MEN’S HEALTH