How to beat DIABETES

An expert reveals myths about type 2 diabetes and how it’s possible to reverse it, cutting your coronavirus risk

- TANYA PEAREY

MYTH ONE

It’s caused by obesity

Not everyone who has type 2 (T2) diabetes is obese. In fact, only half of those who have it are in the obese range. ‘There are 10% in the normal range,’ says Professor Roy Taylor, a leading diabetes expert. ‘And four out of 10 people are in the overweight range.’ Research by him and his team at Newcastle University suggests that T2 diabetes is caused, not by obesity specifically, but by the storage of too much fat for your body, particularly in your liver and pancreas, affecting their ability to help regulate the levels of sugar in your blood.

When your body takes on more calories than it burns, it stores them as fat. First, safely, under the skin. Then, less safely, in your liver and pancreas. 'All it lakes is half a gram of extra fat inside the pancreas,' says Professor Taylor. 'There's a bit of the luck of the draw mixed in because, if a person's insulin-producing cells are not susceptible to fat excess, then they're unlikely to get type 2 diabetes. If they are, then they will.'

MYTH TWO

It’s a lifelong disease

That’s what the experts used to think, but now they agree it’s reversible, says Professor Taylor. ‘It’s possible to escape and that’s great news because almost everybody will have been told that this is a life sentence.’ But you need to act fast because the longer you have T2 diabetes, the more difficult it becomes to reverse. ‘It’s very reversible in the first few years,’ says Professor Taylor. ‘After that, it starts getting less and less likely that it will reverse.