Sorry, but that makes me crazy! Another pill to treat a disease that is due to sugar, sucrose, high fructose corn syrup, whatever you want to call it! I am a follower of Dr. Lustig, you tube some of his talks about the dangers of sugar and what it's doing in relation to our obesity epidemic. He believes fructose (much sweeter than glucose) is a poison, and I agree with him.

The cure is.....tofu chow mein?

I'm with you, Sleeperblues! Doctors' office personnel are always telling me I'm lucky because I don't take any meds. I tell them it has less to do with luck, and more to do with the way I eat--and the things I don't eat. My family has a strong history of diabetes and heart disease, so I had to do something. One of the things I did was to go cold turkey on my sugar addiction 20 years ago.

LOL Snidely . . . well, I was hungry when I posted.

Raven, we are talking about TYPE 2 DIABETES here, not type 1 Juvenile onset or whatever you want to call it. Type 2 Diabetes is a disease that is brought about by lifestyle choices, not genetics. The real cure to type 2 diabetes is real food, such as the picture that Alisande posted, not pharmacopeia. It's just another drug that will allow the drug companies to rape the public, while their coffers get fatter. Pun intended.

You do realize that I and many many others here on this forum have type 2 diabetes don't you. Are you seriously saying to all of us that we have a disease that is killing us because we ate some sugar?

I really hope you understand how hurtful, degrading, and misguided that is. Genetics is hugely involved.

Sugar is much less involved in the process. It is that our bodies are lacking the ability to process the sugar that is made internally, that includes hugely, by the break down of Carbohydrates! That our pancreas is not functioning properly! That we don't handle insulin normally. What medical school did you attend?

Would you tell a person with aids well you were stupid to have sex , a person with hepatitis c see what you got from needing that blood transfusion. A person who has failing liver that they must have drank too much?

How in the world can you take a wonderful article about something that could save thousands of lives and turn it into a slap in the face to hundreds of us. Congratulations on that you certainly succeeded.

I was 20 years old in the peak of health, six pack abs, in the karate studio daily doing intense workouts, eating right, working on my pre med degree, and do you know what I was told from blood work done on me then? I doubt you do. I was told then that I was pre diabetic and I would have diabetes my body was not able to function properly. I sure as heck asked what could I do to try to avoid it, the answer was do what you are doing, work out, stay healthy but it will happen. And it did. NOT BECAUSE I HAPPENED TO EAT SOME SUGAR. Because of my personal genetics. My grandmother had type 1. I have type 2. I also have sjogrens Syndrome, lupus, thyroid disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and a number of other dreadful diseases that are all killing me every day. Did I do something stupid to get them too?

I don't know if you have children, grandchildren or great grandchildren but what are you going to say to them if they happen to be stricken by this disease? Will you have the audacity to tell them what you just told us? Or would you praise God for the wonderful medical researchers that worked so hard to try to find a cure for your loved one?

By the way fructose is what is naturally in fruit so from your "information" you are saying no one should eat fruit because it contains the devil fructose.

And learning what the disease is called before you trash all the people who have it would be preferable to "or whatever you want to call it".

And I do have to agree with the very first statement you made in your first post, yes you are.

I have to go stick a needle in my stomach now to take one of the meds that I certainly praise God for daily that is keeping me alive.

Wow, you told me! Settle down. I am not crazy. It seems you have drawn the short stick in the game of health with all the problems you have. I did not personally attack you, but you sure personally attacked me. Type 2 diabetes is most certainly due to lifestyle. I don't really know what your concomitant diseases have to do with you acquiring diabetes, perhaps steroid use? My father had type 2, from an unrelated (non-genetic) health problem. Does that make me genetically prone to diabetes. Heck no. An overwhelming number of people who have type 2 diabetes also have the risk factors associated with it.

If you don't think that the large food companies, with the addition of HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP to almost any processed food, are not partially to blame for the obesity epidemic in this country and now world-wide, then you need to do some research.

Of the hundreds of type 2 diabetics I see each year in my anesthesia practice, I would say 90-95% have lifestyle risk factors associated with their disease. Oh, and diabetes is never just a single disease. There is almost always heart disease, obesity, delayed stomach emptying (big one for general anesthesia) and peripheral neuropathies (another big one for anesthesia). So, while I like you do not have a medical degree, I at least have 30 years of patient care from which to cull my memories.

Next time try to keep calm when responding.

It's a complicated issue, and as I'm sure some of you are tired of hearing me say on this forum, we are all individuals with different responses to foods, environments, and what-have-you. One person's solution is not guaranteed to work for another. Conversely, some bodies seem to tolerate a lot.

I, too, was diagnosed as pre-diabetic in my early 20's. I wasn't overweight, but I wasn't nearly as fit as you were, Raven. It was a shock, but not a surprise, if that makes any sense. Many members of my extended family had suffered with diabetes, but somehow I thought it wouldn't happen to me.

My doctor at the time was Robert Atkins (yes, the famous one), and he cut me off all simple carbs. Actually, for a while it seemed as though he cut me off all carbs, but the simple ones--sugar, white bread, pasta--were the big villains. I can't say I stuck to this way of eating ever since then, but I came back to it for good a few decades later.

My dad, whose father died of a heart attack at 61, was a great role model. He was an avid tennis player until his forties, when angina severely limited his activities. I remember how he couldn't walk up a subway ramp without putting a nitroglycerine tablet under his tongue. But then he found a physician who was ahead of his time. (This was around 1950.) He had my dad stop smoking and stop eating saturated fat. I watched him give up everything at once: No more cigarettes. No more ice cream, bacon, sausage, half & half, butter, and all the rest. He ground his own hamburger from lean round steak. He got back to tennis, rode a bicycle, and lived to be 90.

On the other side of the coin is a family I've known for years. Diabetes and heart disease are in the family, but no one has made any lifestyle changes. They all rely on pills. One person went blind before she died. Another lost all feeling in his feet before he died. The remaining few continue to eat and drink to excess. To go into one of their kitchens and see all the Italian bread, cookies, donuts, etc., is frustrating, to put it mildly.

I wonder if Carol in California will weigh in here. I believe she used to be a diabetes counselor.

High fructose corn syrup is a manufactured chemical, it's not present in any unprocessed item derived from a plant. The fructose in fruit is something VERY different. But that's sugar all the same, there's little difference between fructose in fruit and white sugar. Notwithstanding all the well intentioned people who like to tout products "sweetened with fruit juice or honey, not with sugar".

There is absolutely no doubt that a good healthy balanced diet is best for all conditions including diabetes. No arguments at all there. Balanced being the important term. I have undergone multiple diabetes education classes, seminars, workshops etc. I get it. I'm living it.
What is upsetting to me and I am sure to anyone else that has type 2 the constant implication that we are second class citizens, and don't deserve to have medical research money spent on us like in the article quoted because we are responsible for our disease. That is so far from the truth and it is beyond hurtful to hear it. That the public is being raped because money is spent on research to help save our lives, we are not worthy of the same treatments as a patient with cancer, or any other deadly disease. That is exactly how it came across in both posts. And believe me we hear it all the time. The diabetes forums are so many people expressing this same feeling, being looked down upon, spoken to with disgust.
I spent my entire life being a degreed, licensed, medical researcher fighting to find cures for diseases and help for genetic related conditions. Because I am a Geneticist. I did go to medical school. I did pay my dues. I did everything in my power to try to help people no matter what disease they had. I worked on cancer protocols, diabetes protocols, hepatitis, all types of genetic illness in pregnancy, I spent years working on the Human Genome project as did all geneticists.
So to hear someone so easily say that " Another pill to treat a disease that is due to sugar, sucrose, high fructose corn syrup, whatever you want to call it!" How belittling.
And express that money should not be spent on that research, what instead we should be simply left to die because God forbid we got the damn disease that is caused by sugar? See how that could just possibly stab me in the heart and be a little upsetting? Believe me I am not the only one feeling this right now. Would anyone have ever said the same thing about a new drug that was found to reverse breast cancer?

Thank you Raven for your reply. Knowing my family history of type 2, I watch my sugar levels and weight. My Mom, her grandfather and his grandfather all had type 2. Mom died due to kidney failure brought on by this horrid disease. Friends who are slim and fit have been diagnosed also.

Yes, some do develop adult onset due to poor eating and exercise habits. can this turn genetic for their offspring? Time will tell.

Sleeper, in your OP you seem to be blaming the victims of type 2 for causing their illness. Your subsequent post also blames the victims. Just curious, you say you have a anesthesia practice, are you an MD??

The thing I found most exciting about the Yale research is that it addresses the cause of the problem. I'm often critical of the way modern medicine treats symptoms instead of looking at the root cause. So many popular pharmaceuticals are like that: The patient takes one pill to treat a symptom, and sometimes ends up taking another one to treat a symptom caused by the first pill! I have one friend who takes 11 pills every day.

I personally think everyone would be better off avoiding processed foods in general. Just stay away from all those supermarket aisles of chemical-laden and sweetened boxes and cans, not to mention the deli section. But whether or not others agree with me about that, if this new discovery could eliminate the cause of diabetes and fatty liver disease, with no adverse effects, that would be wonderful.

First of all, I must apologize if you think I was belittling you or anyone with diabetes, be it type I or type 2. As I said, my father had the disease and there was no one I thought more highly of. The frustration I feel is not toward the people who have the disease, it is towards the companies that promote the disease. Perhaps I am a conspiracy theorist, but I really feel the large food companies and drug companies do not want us to change our diets, but instead to continue to "supersize". My thoughts are that they are not promoting wellness, but rather sickness. I'm sorry if my post riled some, it was not my intention. I struggle, too, to live a healthy lifestyle.

PK, I am a CRNA and have been a nurse for over 30 years and an anesthetist for over 20 years.

I think Type 2 diabetes is a combination of genetics and lifestyle. If it were only lifestyle related, then could you assume that a change in diet would reverse/eradicate the disease? That seems doubtful. It's seems more likely that your blood sugar levels would perhaps remain more constant and lower, but you would still be diabetic.

Alisande ...I admire your ability to stay away from sugar/carbs for so long. You never have birthday cake, a piece of candy, dessert when you go out to dinner? What is your typical breakfast, lunch, dinner?

It took me a long time to be able to pass up cake, pie, etc., without a pang. But now I actually feel a kind of aversion to overly sweet things. Even when I bake for my family, and don't eat it myself, I cut way back on the amount of sugar called for in a recipe.

I have no desire for birthday cake--mine or anyone else's--and no, I never have dessert in a restaurant. I don't eat candy--with one exception: I occasionally have a piece of Lindt 85% cacao chocolate, which isn't very sweet. As a child, I ate a lot of candy. My desk at school always contained Milk Duds and Charms. Then there were the Snickers bars....

I do eat fruit, and starchy vegetables like winter squash and yams. I have oat bran every day, plus occasionally grains like oats, quinoa, brown rice, buckwheat, etc. Pasta rarely.

PS: I have another reason for limiting carbs. My triglyceride levels were dangerously high (547) before I got serious about my carb intake. High triglycerides are a big heart risk, especially for women.

I have been warned to keep my diet clean because my A1C got a little high for awhile so I cleaned up my act...I come from a family of diabetics and I am sure at one point my daughter will be a diabetic...her dad and Grandmother and that side are and Aunt and cousin on my side and her doctor is already warning her about high numbers...

"I'm often critical of the way modern medicine treats symptoms instead of looking at the root cause"

Sorry, alisande, I think this comment is incorrect. Your description of how a doc approaches a medical problem isn't accurate. Physicians may treat symptoms or may try different approaches when the diagnosis is uncertain or is ambiguous. Otherwise, nope.

Okay, let me reword that:

I'm critical of the way modern medicine often treats symptoms instead of looking at the root cause.

It was not my intention to criticize all physicians, or even all pharmaceutical companies. I certainly won't criticize all patients. But it's well known that many people go to the doctor looking for a pill to eliminate a source of discomfort, and they often get what they're looking for. Things being the way they are today, many doctors don't have the time nor the inclination to look into the root cause of relatively trivial ailments, despite the fact that the ailment might not be trivial to the patient--and might very well lead to something more serious down the line.

Attention to lifestyle is one of the big differences between standard and holistic physicians. I've been going to the former for decades, and except for Dr. Atkins when I was in my 20's, I have never once been asked what I eat.

"I'm critical of the way modern medicine often treats symptoms instead of looking at the root cause." This is the same comment, to which I say the same "Nope".

"many doctors don't have the time nor the inclination to look into the root cause of relatively trivial ailments". The same is true of your auto mechanic, your dentist, your plumber, your accountant, etc., The key word is "trivial". You rely on the expertise you hire to make these judgments, it's folly to think you know enough to second-guess them.

" I have never once been asked what I eat". My internist goes through a long list of lifestyle questions at my annual physical, even though I'm in good health and all my lab numbers are fine. If you don't get asked such questions, you need to find another physician. Pick one at or affiliated with a medical school, they tend to be better.

Good luck,