Type 2 diabetes can be reversed by going on a low calorie diet, new research shows.
Consuming just 600 calories a day for eight weeks can save the lives of millions of sufferers of the preventable condition.
Newcastle University scientists said that excess calories lead to a fatty liver, which causes the liver to produce too much glucose.
The excess fat is then passed to the pancreas, which causes the insulin-producing cells to fail and thus causing diabetes.
Losing less than one gram of fat from the pancreas can re-start insulin production, reversing type 2 diabetes, the researchers found.
Consuming just 600 calories a day for eight weeks can save the lives of millions of sufferers of type 2 diabetes, scientists claim
This reversal of diabetes remains possible for at least ten years after the onset of the condition, lead author Professor Roy Taylor said.
Professor Taylor, who has spent almost four decades studying the condition, said: ‘I think the real importance of this work is for the patients themselves.
‘Many have described to me how embarking on the low calorie diet has been the only option to prevent what they thought – or had been told – was an inevitable decline into further medication and further ill health because of their diabetes.
‘By studying the underlying mechanisms we have been able to demonstrate the simplicity of type 2 diabetes.’
Often thought of as harmless, type 2 diabetes is a hidden killer and can lead to heart failure, blindness, kidney disease and leg amputations.
Figures suggest there are 380 million sufferers worldwide. In Britain this has topped 3.8 million, an amount that continues to rise.
Experts welcomed the findings, which were presented at the European Association For The Study Of Diabetes in Lisbon.
Professor Kamlesh Khunti, of the Leicester Diabetes Centre, said: ‘This is great research and shows that low calorie diets can work in highly-motivated people, however, this would be difficult to implement widely for most people.’
Type 2 diabetes is caused by having too much glucose in the blood because the body’s way of turning it into energy is not working properly.
As the condition progresses, sufferers often need to maintain a healthy diet, exercise and a combination of medications to manage it.
Controlling blood sugar levels are also considered to be the key to reducing the risk of life-changing complications for those already diagnosed.
Someone’s life expectancy with type 2 diabetes is likely to be reduced as a result of the condition, by up to 10 years, it is believed.