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Will my diabetes ever go away?

There is no cure for diabetes. Neither type 1 (juvenile onset or insulin-requiring) diabetes or type 2 (adult-onset) diabetes ever goes away. Overweight patients diagnosed with type 2 diabetes may discover that their blood glucose returns to normal if they lose weight and begin regular physical activity. Does this mean their diabetes has disappeared? No. The development of type 2 diabetes is a gradual process in which the body becomes unable to produce enough insulin for its needs and/or the body's cells become resistant to insulin's effects. Gradually the patient goes from having impaired glucose tolerance a decreased but still adequate ability to convert food into energy, to having diabetes.

If the patient were to gain weight back or scale back on their physical activity program, high blood glucose would return. If they were to overeat at a meal, their blood glucose probably would continue to go higher than someone without diabetes. Also, the decreased insulin production and/or increased insulin resistance that led to the initial diabetes diagnosis will gradually intensify over the years and during periods of stress. In time, the patient who could maintain normal blood glucose with diet and exercise alone may discover that he or she needs to add oral diabetes medications - or perhaps even insulin injections - to keep blood glucose in a healthy range.

The good news for a type 1 and type 2 patient: if insulin, medication, weight loss, physical activity and changes in eating result in normal blood glucose, it means their diabetes is well-controlled and their risk of developing diabetes complications is much lower. But it doesn't mean that their diabetes has gone away.

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• What is Diabetes?
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• What are the symptoms of diabetes?
• What is pre-diabetes?
• Who gets diabetes?
• Why should I self test?
• What is high blood sugar?
• What is low blood sugar?
• What are the risk factors for diabetes?
• What is the treatment for diabetes?