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Type 2 diabetes: New treatment eliminates insulin for 86% of patients

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286 points amichail | 3 comments | 17 Oct 24 20:46 UTC | HN request time: 0.773s | source
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mnw21cam ◴[17 Oct 24 22:11 UTC] No.41874323[source]▶
I wouldn't ignore the effect that having surgery and then two weeks of a strictly controlled food intake has. That might account for a large proportion of the success rate. I heard about a study that found that the fasting required for bariatric surgery actually provides a large proportion of the benefit of the procedure.

If you catch type 2 diabetes before it gets so bad that it has killed off the beta cells, then your best treatment is to fast for a while. After a couple of days, you should notice a massive improvement in glucose control. A week of fasting a couple of times a year might be all it takes to give you a complete cure. YMMV, but in my opinion (and that of a whole load of people who know what they're talking about) it's better than filling yourself with drugs.

After the beta cells have been killed off by overwork, yeah, you need insulin. But you can still reduce the amount you need by losing weight.

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1. UniverseHacker ◴[18 Oct 24 14:23 UTC] No.41879753[source]▶
I’ve noticed for me fasting has a long lasting effect on reducing overeating with leads to sustained weight loss way beyond the calorie deficit- and deliberately doing other mildly mentally and physically uncomfortable activities like cold showers and weightlifting have similar effects also.

My theory is that overeating is basically an addictive behavior- a way to escape from stress, negative feelings, and emotional trauma. It is actually the mental discomfort of fasting that gives you confidence that you can deal with mental pain and discomfort without trying to escape it, that leads to eating less. This is likely the same mechanism behind weight loss drugs like semaglutide that also help with non food related addictions.

Overall I think people are missing the emotional and psychological mechanisms behind the obesity epidemic, and looking too much at things like calories and nutrient content, which is why the whole phenomenon has been eluding understanding.

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2. astura ◴[18 Oct 24 17:55 UTC] No.41881839[source]▶
>It is actually the mental discomfort of fasting that gives you confidence that you can deal with mental pain and discomfort without trying to escape it, that leads to eating less. This is likely the same mechanism behind weight loss drugs like semaglutide that also help with non food related addictions.

This is not true. For me at least the effect of fasting for several days is purely physiological, not psychological, emotional or spiritual. There's no extra "confidence" to deal with "discomfort," your body simply needs drastically less food. You also drastically increase your feelings of being satiated after eating.

So after fasting (and its probably the same on GLP-1 meds) you don't get very hungry and when you do eat you feel very content and full after only a few bites.

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3. UniverseHacker ◴[18 Oct 24 19:02 UTC] No.41882424[source]▶
Your experience being different than mine does not make mine "not true" nor is what you are saying mutually exclusive with what I am saying. There's most likely a lot of things going on at the same time here- that are interrelated in complex ways, and likely somewhat different in different people.

Lots of research shows that overstimulation of the reward system, e.g. from high satiety foods overrides the feeling of fullness in a way that integrates both what you and I were saying in a coherent way - especially if you think of "mild discomfort" as a state of low stimulation of the reward system [1]. This is probably why so many different seemingly mutually exclusive diet protocols work equally well- anything that restricts some foods and not others, regardless of what they are, lowers the total reward system stimulation from food.

For me, I am still hungry while fasting, but the hunger becomes easier to handle over time. I also notice afterwards that I am full with less food like you noticed, in addition to the other things I mentioned. It is also easier for me to stop eating while still a little hungry after fasting.

In my case years of logging my bodyweight on a digital scale show I only gain weight during stressful events, but then keep it the rest of the time... and if I'm consistently taking cold showers or doing regular short fasts, it prevents that effect and causes gradual weight loss on top of it. So I have fairly convincing data that what I am saying is true for me, but it may not be true for everyone.

[1] https://boingboing.net/2012/03/09/seduced-by-food-obesity-an...