While the coronavirus has been making the headlines for the past years, another epidemic is progressing almost unnoticed: the global spread of type 2 diabetes.
In 2017 the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) estimated that 451 million adults lived with diabetes worldwide with a projected increase to 693 million by 2045 if no effective prevention methods are adopted (1). Around 90 percent of all diabetes illnesses can be assigned to type 2 diabetes.
Causes of Type 2 Diabetes
The increase in the number of type 2 diabetes is attributed to the following factors:
- Overweight: More and more people weigh too much.
- Unhealthy diet: The consumption of fast food, i.e. high-calorie foods with a high proportion of fat and sugar, is increasing worldwide.
- Little physical exercise: Many people sit all day and hardly move.
- Longer life expectancy: Diabetes diseases especially increase from the age of 65.
Overweight/Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes
EASO, the European Association for the Study of Obesity, defines obesity and overweight as abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that may impair health. While obesity alone is unlikely to cause Type 2 diabetes, 44% of people living with Type 2 are also overweight or obese. For that reason the condition is considered a ‘gateway’ to diabetes. (2)
How can remission be achieved in type 2 diabetes?
In type 2 diabetes, a complete resolution (remission) of the disease can often be achieved by losing weight.
A critical, narrative review of over 90 research papers was carried out for a current study that looked at remission in type 2 diabetes. It showed that weight loss is the key to remission in type 2 diabetes, which should be the main goal of treatment by healthcare professionals. The results of the study can be found in the English-language “Journal of Human Nutrition & Dietetics” (3).
There is now a growing number of research results which show that significant weight loss of ten to 15 kg, either through surgical weight reduction, through diet and nutritional changes or medication (eg. GLP-1) can lead to remission of type 2 diabetes (non-diabetic blood sugar levels).
The research (3) concludes that while weight loss appears to be the best predictor of success in remission, it requires fat loss in the pancreas and liver.
Not everyone will be able to achieve remission, but people who are under the age of 50 and have had type 2 diabetes for less than six years are more likely to achieve successful remission through greater weight loss.
What is GluCare providing for Type 2 Diabetes patients to get in remission?
At GluCare we have to understand from the beginning, that weight loss and maintaining normal weight is showing the best results in managing type 2 diabetes patients.
All the above-mentioned tools to achieve weigh loss in type 2 diabetes are implemented from our first day, when we offered our methodology of care to the public.
GluCare provides a digital platform combined with an in-clinic setting where a patient is continually monitored remotely on the most important parameters, beyond simply glucose, that are relevant to their diabetes.
Our completely new category of personalized healthcare services that utilize continuous health information includes such as CGM data, sleep data, heart rate (HR), heart rate variability (HRV), activity and many more, from users. This data is combined with cloud based artificial intelligence (AI) tools working alongside medical professionals to take care of users daily.
There are over 40 parameters that affect your metabolism. To really understand what is going on with our patients, we need to monitor these parameters. More information means better insights and better result for achieving remission in type 2 diabetes.
GluCare’s unique diabetes management platform helps us manage patient’s food choices to obtain more optimal glycemic control and weight loss. We are able to, in near real-time, look at a patient’s dietary choices and analyze responses to glucose and weight changes, and communicate with our patients via our app.
Through that we find an individualized diet for our patients to loss effective weight, optimize blood glucose and maintained weight loss and diabetes remission for long time periods.
We use medications like GLP-1’s as a supporting tool for weight loss, not as a long-time solution.
And we not only offer metabolic surgery, but more important manage continuously the post care of these patients with our methodology of care. Because we see here unfortunately often a weight gain after successful weight loss because of lack of continues of care and education.
By the way: our current average achievement of weight loss in our diabetes patients is 4.49% in 90 days. International guidelines have given a goal of 5 % in 160 days.
Reference:
(1) Cho, N. H. et al. IDF Diabetes atlas: global estimates of diabetes prevalence for 2017 and projections for 2045. Diabetes Res. Clin. Pract. 138, 271–281 (2018)
(2) https://www.who.int/news-room/events/detail/2021/04/14/default-calendar/global-diabetes-summit
(3) https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jhn.12938
