"Type  diabetes httptime.comtimehealthtypediabetes is a chronic condition that affects  million people worldwide. For decades doctors have treated it with medications designed to keep blood sugar levels down. But in a paper published in the Lancet http researchers in the UK describe a landmark study in which people with diabetes went into remissionjust by losing weight. Nearly half of people in the study who were given a sixmonth diet plan and lost an average of  pounds went into remission and no longer had diabetes. None took any medications during that time to control their disease and relied on weight loss alone.  Type  diabetes is caused by the bodys in ability to break down sugars from the diet. Normally cells in the pancreas work to release insulin a hormone that can process sugar and either send it to cells that need it for energy or store it as fat for future energy needs. Cells in the liver are responsible for clearing insulin from the circulation. But excess fat in the pancreas and liver can start to shut down these insulinproducing cells leading to spikes in blood sugar levels. Diabetes medications can bring sugar levels down but do not address the compromised insulin machinery. In the study Dr. Roy Taylor professor of medicine and metabolism at Newcastle University and his colleagues randomly assigned nearly  people to either a weight management program or their usual treatments including diabetes medications. All of the people had been diagnosed with type  diabetes in the six years preceding the study. The people assigned to the diet group stopped any diabetes drugs they were taking on the same day they began the diet. The diet which was designed to help people lose up to  pounds involved three to five months of a strict lowcalorie liquid formula diet averaging no more than  calories a day followed by two to eight weeks of reintroducing food along with nutritional education and cognitive behavioral therapy to help people stick with the new eating plan. Taylor and his team tracked outcomes including weight loss diabetes remission and level of fat in the pancreas and liver. After a year most of the people in the diet group lost about  pounds compared to two pounds in the control group. Nearly a quarter of the people who managed their weight were able to lose  pounds or more while none in the control group were able to lose that much. Most importantly  of the people in the diet group went into remission with their diabetes compared to just  in the control group. MORE Antibiotics Are Linked To Type Diabetes httptime.comantibioticsdiabetes People newly diagnosed with diabetes for the first time can look at this and know it isnt necessarily for life says Taylor. It isnt an irreversible inexorable condition that you can never escape from  at the moment people are told that. Previous studies have suggested that lifestyle changes including diet and exercise can be powerful ways to lose weight and combat diabetes httptime.comreversediabetesweightloss. The Diabetes Prevention Program httptime.comthedietprescription in the U.S. revealed in  that diet and exercise alone can prevent people from progressing from prediabetes to diabetes in some cases better than medications designed to control blood sugar. Gastric bypass surgery which can result in dramatic weight loss can also help to reverse diabetes httptime.comgastricbypasssurgeryhighlyeffectiveintreatingtypediabetes but the procedure is costly and carries a high risk of complications. The current study takes that work a step further and shows that its possible to actually reverse the disease in people who have been diagnosed. Taylor stresses that the study only addressed people diagnosed relatively recently  within the past six years  and that the effect may not apply to more longterm patients. Thats because as the disease continues he says insulinproducing cells start to die off. Initially the cells slowly shut down entering a socalled resting state. Those are the cells that weight loss can reactivate. But left in this state too long the cells eventually die and cannot be revived. Studies suggest that people living with diabetes for more than  years for example may not be able to rely on weight loss alone to push them into remission. That points to an important lesson that Taylor hopes doctors and patients will learn from the results. He says that its critical to discuss from the start  when people are diagnosed with diabetes  the possibility of using diet and weight loss to treat their disease. If more people can benefit from losing weight alone then that would mean less cost to the health care system as fewer people will suffer the serious complications of advanced disease which can include heart problems neuropathy vision issues and even amputations. Taylor says he intends to follow up on the people in the study for another four years to see if they are able to maintain their weight and if they are whether they continue to remain in remission. From the very clear data we produced in this trial yes this is a watershed moment for diabetes he says. We can offer people hope from the start."