Not Chronic, Not Progressive: How Type 2 Diabetes Can Be Reversed

Dr. Jason Fung joined Brendon Fallon on Vital Signs to reveal the simple and fixable cause of Type 2 diabetes.

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Despite advances in modern medicine, an increasing number of people in the United States are affected by chronic diseases. Between 2012 and 2022, the prevalence of  Type 2 diabetes rose by nearly 20 percent. Meanwhile, the estimated economic burden of diabetes in the United States in 2022 was more than $400 billion.

In an interview with Brendon Fallon on Vital Signs, Dr. Jason Fung, the bestselling author of “The Diabetes Code,” said this doesn’t have to be the case, because Type 2 diabetes can be easily and inexpensively reversed. A reversal requires a shift in understanding—moving away from the long-held belief in insulin resistance as the primary cause of the condition toward a more accurate view that supports Fung’s essential diet and lifestyle changes.

Insulin Resistance: Cell Overload or Cell Dysfunction?

Type 2 diabetes is diagnosed when blood glucose levels exceed certain thresholds, posing risks to various organs, especially the kidneys. Type 1 diabetes is caused by too little insulin—the hormone that moves glucose from the blood into the cells to be used for energy. On the other hand, Type 2 diabetes is widely framed as a problem of insulin resistance—cells are perceived to resist insulin’s effects.

However, Fung challenges this view, saying that Type 2 diabetes results not from cell dysfunction, but from cell overload. He likens the situation to an overcrowded restaurant, where the cell, filled to capacity with glucose, spills excess glucose into the bloodstream, ultimately leading to elevated blood glucose levels and a diagnosis of Type 2 diabetes.

Type 2 diabetes is caused by overloading cells with glucose, not cell dysfunction, says Dr. Jason Fung in “Reverse Type 2 Diabetes on “Vital Signs.”

Reversing Type 2 Diabetes: A Simple Approach

Seeing Type 2 diabetes as a matter of cell-glucose overload as opposed to cell dysfunction shifts the focus from using medical means to “manage it” to using diet change to reverse it, Fung said.

Medical treatment involves injecting more insulin into the body in hopes of pushing more glucose into cells. However, Fung sees this as an unnecessary measure. He contends that the key to reversal lies in lowering dietary glucose intake and that there’s a simple way to do so.

According to Fung, if dietary glucose intake is sufficiently lowered, your body will eventually burn off the excess glucose. With the cells no longer packed with glucose, the glucose from the blood is able to enter them. Thus, blood glucose goes down and Type 2 diabetes is reversed.

Many people with Type 2 diabetes, including some doctors, don’t realize the condition can sometimes be reversed, according to Fung. He pointed out that medical institutions were slow to recognize this, with the American Diabetes Association only publishing remission criteria in the early 2020s, despite years of evidence from studies on weight loss surgery. These surgeries, which restrict food intake and thus glucose, often resulted in the disappearance of diabetes.

Fung said that doctors who were trained before 2020 often still consider Type 2 diabetes irreversible, telling patients it’s chronic and progressive, rather than focusing on diet as the source of excess glucose and a potential path to improvement.

Diet Recommendations: Where to Start?

To effectively reduce glucose levels, Fung suggests cutting back on foods that raise your blood glucose. These include sugary foods and carbohydrates. However, not all carbohydrates are equal.

Carbohydrates that digest slowly are a better choice than ultra-processed foods that digest quickly. For example, most vegetables digest slowly and won’t raise blood glucose as much as highly refined carbohydrates such as white bread or instant oatmeal. Foods such as eggs and meat are also good alternatives, as they do not raise glucose levels.

Weight Loss and Patient Success Stories

There is ample evidence that dietary change leads to reversal of Type 2 diabetes, as seen in patients of Dr. David Unwin, a pioneer of the low-carb approach in the UK. In an eight-year study, of the 186 patients who followed Unwin’s low-carbohydrate diet and weight loss advice, 51 percent achieved remission of their Type 2 diabetes.

Fung has seen similar successes in his own clinic. For example, he treated one patient who had been on large doses of insulin every day for 10 years. The patient began cutting carbs and practicing intermittent fasting. Within a month, the patient was completely off medication, and the patient’s blood glucose was low enough to be classified as nondiabetic.

Fung said that he has seen this result time and again: “If you had somebody with diabetes, and they lost a lot of weight, or they changed their diet, and they got rid of the junk food and sweets, diabetes would almost 100 percent either get better or go away.”

Prevention and Early Detection

While reversing their disease is a real prospect for many Type 2 diabetes patients, prevention remains the ideal goal. To this end, Fung recommends checking your hemoglobin A1C (HbA1c)—which indicates average blood glucose level—yearly to detect any upward trends that may signal prediabetes. Early detection provides a window of time to determine risk and make dietary adjustments.

Fung adds that monitoring pancreas insulin production is another way to gauge Type 2 diabetes risk because insulin rises along with the blood sugar before the blood sugar reaches the Type 2 diabetes threshold. At some point though, “the insulin production drops, the blood glucose goes up, and you make the diagnosis of Type 2 diabetes,” Fung said.

The fasting C-peptide test is a common way to measure insulin production because C-peptide is a byproduct of insulin production, and the body makes roughly as much of it as it does insulin. It’s usually ordered by a patient’s physician or an endocrinologist and performed by a lab nurse or technician.

Key Takeaways

• Type 2 diabetes is caused by the overloading of cells with glucose rather than cell dysfunction.
• If a cell has too much glucose, it will spill into the blood, raising blood glucose level.
• Blood glucose levels can be lowered by reducing dietary glucose intake.

Watch “Reverse Type 2 Diabetes” to learn about the simple fix for insulin resistance in Type 2 diabetes.

More Videos on Diet and Fasting to Curb Disease on Vital Signs:

Watch “Silent Sugar” on diabetes and obesity-high-risk foods, feat. Dr. Jason Fung.

Watch “Anti-Age Keto Diet” on how to eat to slow aging, feat. Dr. Annette Bosworth.

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