Intermittent fasting may prevent diabetes

Intermittent fasting may prevent diabetes by Dr. Joseph Mercola for Mercola

Diabetes is a disease of insulin resistance resulting in high blood sugar.¹ Your pancreas secretes the hormone insulin, which is used to move blood sugar across cell walls for energy.² The number of those experiencing diabetes has risen sharply since 1958, when the CDC³ estimated 0.93% of the population had been diagnosed with it.

By 2015 the number had risen to 7.4%. As the population numbers had also increased, the absolute numbers diagnosed were 1.6 million in 1958, rising to 23.4 million in 2015.⁴ The percentage of the population diagnosed with diabetes rose slowly from 1958 to 1995, at which point it began increasing more quickly from 3.3% of the population to 7.4% in 2015.⁵

Another report from the CDC⁶ encompasses the total number of existing cases, including newly diagnosed diabetes. According to this report it is estimated that in 2015, 9.4% of the U.S. population or 30.3 million people were diabetic. When they factored in those who may not be aware of their diagnosis, the percentage rose to 12.2% of all U.S. adults.

One future model⁷ predicts that without change, the prevalence will increase 54% to more than 54.9 million Americans by 2030. According to the World Health Organization,⁸ 422 million people around the world, or 8.5%, were diagnosed with diabetes in 2014; this represents a 3.8% increase from 1980. The disease is a principal reason for blindness, heart attacks, strokes, kidney failure and lower limb amputation.⁹

Diabetes is one of the most expensive chronic diseases¹⁰ and is estimated to cost more than $245 billion per year in the U.S. The future model published in the Population of Health Management estimates this will rise to $622 billion by 2030.¹¹

Whatever metric is being used to measure, the numbers are rising. Current treatment philosophy¹²holds that you can manage the disease with making healthy eating choices, being active and using prescription medications, such as insulin, to control blood sugar levels.

A recent study¹³ published in the journal Metabolism demonstrates how intermittent fasting, known to improve sensitivity to insulin¹⁴ and to protect against fatty liver disease,^15,16 may also reduce pancreatic fat deposits and help prevent development of Type 2 diabetes.

Preventing diabetes with intermittent fasting

When your body is insulin resistant,¹⁷ the cells in your body do not respond well to insulin, which lowers their ability to use glucose from the blood for energy. The pancreas secretes more insulin, trying to overcome the cells’ weak response and keep blood glucose levels in a healthy range.

A research team from the German Institute of Human Nutrition undertook a study to determine how weight-induced fat buildup in the pancreas has an effect on the onset of Type 2 diabetes.¹⁸ Using an animal model, the study team found that overweight mice prone to diabetes also had a high amount of fat in the pancreas.

If mice were genetically resistant to diabetes, despite having excess body weight, their pancreas did not carry fat deposits. However, researchers did find additional fat deposits in the liver of these mice. The team used New Zealand obese mice who were split into two groups.¹⁹

One group was fed a high-fat diet and allowed to eat as much as they wanted, and the second group fasted every other day. The researchers measured fat in the pancreas, glucose homeostasis, insulin sensitivity and islet of Langerhans function (cells in the pancreas where insulin is produced²⁰).

They found the mice in the experimental group, undergoing intermittent fasting every other day, had better glucose control and less fat in the pancreas and liver than the control group who were allowed to eat as much as they wished each day.

When a variety of cell types from the mice were cultured together, researchers found fat cells in the pancreas developed a hypersecretion of insulin and released more fatty acids than white fat cells harvested from the lower stomach and groin area.

Based on these results, the researchers suggested²¹ that pancreatic fat plays a role in the development of Type 2 diabetes, but intermittent fasting may prevent pancreatic fat deposits.

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