I didn’t know this, but according to Canadian Diabetologists and Endocrinologists it’s possible for Type 2 Diabetes to go into remission. Their definition of remission is the “return to pre-diabetes, or normal glucose concentrations, without the use of antihyperglycemic [blood sugar lowering] medications for 3 months.” I knew this so-called period of “remission,” as “a honeymoon period.” In the “honeymoon” state, it’s as if the patient’s diabetes just disappeared for awhile, and as I previously stated, the “honeymoon” lasted several months. But as all good diseases are prone to do, the honeymoon ended, and the patient had to go back on his meds.
I’ve seen “honeymoon” periods occur in Parkinson’s Disease patients, too. For some odd reason, the patient’s medications were doing more harm than good, and for that reason they were discontinued. During this “honeymoon” period, while the patient took no Parkinson’s meds, he remained free of the symptoms. However, the disease always re-emerged after a period of months.
The Canadians decided to study this phenomenon and see if they could produce remission through different treatment protocols. To accomplish this they analyzed the results of 18 clinical trials published from 2008 to 2025. The focus was to see if remission was more likely to occur after drug treatment or after non-drug treatment. Non-drug treatments included behavior, lifestyle, and dietary changes/strategies. Drug treatments investigated were insulin, metformin, GLP-1’s, and SGLT2 inhibitors. Both treatment regimens were compared to patients treated with standard treatment routines.
The results:
- Patients in the drug therapy group were 1.5 times more likely to achieve remission than control patients.
- Patients in the non-drug, lifestyle therapy group were 5.8 times more likely to achieve remission than control patients.
- Both groups also had significant reductions in HbA1c, body weight, improved quality of life, and lower risk for low blood sugar.
- Remission rates declined over time especially in the lifestyle group where patients found it difficult to continue lifestyle and behavior changes.
Dr. G’s Opinion: Success in achieving remission does not come in a “one size fits all” protocol. Different combinations of changes must be used and different emphasis should be placed on what works best for the individual patient. The difference in the higher success rates with non-drug treatment, I think, is because these patient’s diabetes wasn’t as bad to begin with. They didn’t have as far to go to achieve remission. But we must remember, remission is wonderful, but in most cases only temporary.
References: Radcliffe S. Type 2 Diabetes Remission Possible, but Better Implementation Needed. Medscape 2025 December 5.
