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ITV News' Olivia Guthrie reports on how cutting carbs could be the 'cure' to type 2 diabetes

A doctor, who prescribes a diet instead of drugs for his type 2 diabetes patients, is celebrating the 150th to be cured of the disease.

Dr David Unwin from Norwood surgery in Southport began offering his patients the option of trying a "low carb" diet to try to reverse their condition 12 years ago.

The results of his experiment appear to be remarkable: More than half of the type 2 diabetes patients who tried the diet (51%) were cured of the condition without the use of medication.

Of the patients who had only had the condition for a year or less, 77% achieved drug-free remission. Among the patients that continued to need medication, 97% managed to get their diabetes symptoms under control.

Type 2 diabetes is a serious condition where there is too much sugar in your blood. Patients are five times more likely to develop heart disease or have a stroke.

Sugar-sweetened beverages contribute to 2.2 million new cases of type 2 diabetes and 1.2 million new cases of cardiovascular disease globally each year, according to a new study from Tufts University researchers. The impact is particularly severe in developing nations, where these drinks can account for up to half of all new diabetes cases in some countries.

The research, published in Nature Medicine, reveals striking regional disparities in the health effects of sugary drink consumption. In Latin America and the Caribbean, these beverages contribute to nearly 24% of new diabetes cases and over 11% of new cardiovascular disease cases. The situation in Sub-Saharan Africa is equally concerning, with sugar-sweetened beverages linked to more than 21% of all new diabetes cases.

Colombia faces the highest burden, with sugary drinks contributing to more than 48% of new diabetes cases. Mexico and South Africa also show alarming statistics, with nearly one-third of new diabetes cases in Mexico and 27.6% in South Africa attributed to these beverages. South Africa additionally sees 14.6% of its new cardiovascular disease cases linked to sugary drink consumption.

“Sugar-sweetened beverages are heavily marketed and sold in low- and middle-income nations. Not only are these communities consuming harmful products, but they are also often less well equipped to deal with the long-term health consequences,” explains Dariush Mozaffarian, senior author and director of the Food is Medicine Institute at the Friedman School.

This new peer-reviewed paper highlights the updated paradigm surrounding Alzheimer's disease (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39762668/). What was once viewed as a disorder of plaques in the brain, is now recognized, at least in part, as a metabolic disorder.

I confess that while I appreciate the intention behind the term "type 3 diabetes" to describe Alzheimer's disease, I also wince at it. This is not a new type of diabetes, but rather a manifestation of the same problem that causes type 2 diabetes: insulin resistance.

Whereas type 2 diabetes (diagnosed by elevated blood glucose) manifests when tissues such as muscle, liver, and pancreatic alpha cells become insulin resistant, Alzheimer's disease is a manifestation of brain insulin resistance.

If we call Alzheimer's disease anything else, this is what we should call it.