Hoping someone can help me. Apologies if I have missed the information in the forums as I only dip in and out.

I have completed the 8 weeks and am now maintaining my new weight. My HbA1c is now 38. So as far as the medics are concerned, am I a diabetic who has managed to get her blood sugar temporarily in the normal range or have I reversed my T2 diabetes? Is there a test that can be taken to see if the pancreas is now doing its job properly? I have no intention of changing the way I now eat, in fact I am struggling to up the calories, and I like being only half a stone heavier than I was when I got married in 1972! I intend to ask my doctor when I see her in a couple of weeks time, but wondered what the feelings were of others who have achieved their goal. I think insurance companies etc. would be only too happy to refuse a claim if you did not declare you were diabetic for example.

Have a lovely weekend everyone, and thanks for your help on this.

Not sure about the answer to that question but it is an interesting one! 🙂

Hello HT, at 42 mmol/mol or 6-6.4 % glycated haemoglobin you are considered to be at high risk of becoming diabetic under the current NHS guidance. By their definition you are not such a person at 38 but you will need to have tests every 6 months or so to prove it. Once you are diagnosed as Type 2 then your GP will be the one to decide whether or not you are in fact diabetic. When the profession catches up with BSD things may change. Worst case may be if you are told that due to your diet it was self inflicted. You should have been advised how to deal with it but prescriptions are easy. We will only know where people like yourself stand as the evidence of reversal builds. Cancer sufferers are regularly referred to as being in remission by some and often it recurs. In the mean time they are cancer free but perhaps prone to a recurrence. If you have permanently changed your eating habits you will definitely be in remission and a recurrence is only likely if you reintroduce the carbs/sugars but you may be still prone to become diabetic. I hope that you will pursue this and try to get the diagnosis removed but it will still be on your records if you had tests in the diabetic range. Insurance companies can be perverse and only they know what excuse they will use if there is a claim to be settled. Perhaps they would be impressed if a reversal were commonplace. But then they would use it against those who could not reverse it. Good luck…

Hi SkyWalker. Thank you for your thoughts. I wait to see how my visit to the doctor goes, but I am not optimistic, especially as I have to tell her that I have stopped taking my statins. We will see.

As far as I’m concerned my last tests showed that I was pre diabetic confirmed with the GP
If I’m told after my next tests in September that I am then non diabetic then that is what I’ll be and no insurance company will tell me differently.
If however I’m told that I am a diet controlled diabetic then that is what I’ll declare when buying holiday insurance.

Bill I am still having a mare with travel insurance, now got a quote as ‘low’ as £250!!! I’m on my pc for one final search. 🙁

Hope you got your insurance sorted, hashimoto.

Brilliant on getting down to pre diabetic range, Bill.

Will be interesting to see how they define which bit of the diabetic spectrum you are now on, HT.

Great to read in the papers this week that the National Obesity Forum and the Public Health Collaboration consider that promoting low-far foods is perhaps the biggest mistake in modern medical history., and great to read on here that there are some open minded GPs and diabetic nurses out there. Sadly mine are not among them and say that I will be diabetic for ever more. However at the end of the day my blood results were great and I feel good even though people keep asking me if I am OK as I have lost a lot of weight! I just wish my friend who is struggling with her hip and walks very badly would listen, but there is no point in talking unless people are ready to hear.

I did think for the first time that there was a glimmer of hope with the diabetic nurse who commented on my weight loss and asked what I had been eating. She appeared to listen and even admitted that she had had a couple of other patients who had achieved good results on the BSD. Alas the penny has not dropped. When I said I had stopped taking my statins she replied that the only way I would be able to keep my cholesterol low would be to eat low-fat foods, to which my reply was ‘That is not going to happen’. I think I am now probably flagged up as a troubled maker! As I said to my husband – people used to think that the Earth was flat. One day hopefully they will realise their mistake.

Good luck to everyone on their journeys. You are all achieving great results and we are all so much healthier for it.