Diabetes Files by Dr. V. Mohan – Episode 15 | Based on a True Story

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:00]Reversal of diabetes. This has become a big hype and people think that it's so easy to reverse diabetes. First of all, the term reversal of diabetes is wrong.

[00:00:11]The correct term is remission of diabetes. What is the difference between reversal and remission? Now, many of you know about cancer. Now, cancer comes and then after that the cancer may not be there for many years. We say that the cancer is in remission. But we also know that sometimes the cancer comes back and then we call it as metastasis. The cancer then spreads all over and then the prognosis is very bad. As you know diabetes is also like that in the very early stages it may be possible with either weight loss or by diet exercise and very rarely even spontaneously sometimes they have stress induced diabetes the stress can go away the blood sugars can become normal and even without any drugs the hbaw1c and the blood sugar levels can be normal we call that stage as remission of diabetes there are a lot of commercial companies who are promising that they will take you off all drugs and that they can reverse your diabetes. Be careful because remission of diabetes while it can occur, it's only in a very small percentage of people and the majority of people is very difficult to achieve remission of diabetes. If your diabetes is recently diagnosed, if it is mild, if it's a very short duration, if it is not very severe and you have obesity which means you can lose weight, these are the people in whom remission of diabetes is possible. Let me tell you the story of somebody who achieved remission of diabetes. So I had a patient who was 113 kilograms in weight and his whole aim was to achieve remission. So he reduced over a period of time he reduced about 15 kg. His weight came down to 98 kg and his glucose test became normal. His hbc became normal. He had some abnormal liver function test that also became normal. And then he had gone into the stage of remission but he believed that he has been cured. So when we called him and said please come for your checkup he said why should I come for checkup? I'm totally cured now. Stop calling me. I don't want to be disturbed. I'm totally cured. You're doing this just to make money. So, stop calling me. We said, "Okay, then we'll stop calling you." Few months later, he came back and we said, "Why have you come back?" "No, no, I'm not feeling well." When he checked his sugar, the sugar levels were actually higher than when he started the remission process and before he started trying to lose weight. His sugars had shot up. His honc is the worst ever. His liver function had deteriorated. His blood sugar levels were very high. And he was feeling very tired and lethargic.

[00:02:59]He had no energy at all. Now what had happened was even though we told him that this is only a remission and you still have to come for checkup, he didn't believe us and he thought he's totally cured and somebody told him once you're cured you can have all the jile bees you like, all the gulab jamuns you like, you can eat as much as badam halva as you want. So he went bersk with his diet. He stopped his exercises. He stopped checking and everything possible that he could do wrong he did wrong because he said now I'm cured. Now I'm cured. But diabetes is not so simple.

[00:03:33]You cannot cure it so easily. And what he had was only a temporary remission and only after his sugar came back and that you came back with a bang did he realize that this remission was only temporary. Many people tell me you are only treating diabetes but there are many people who claim that they can cure my diabetes. So we will go to them. I'll tell them okay if somebody can cure your diabetes please go and but be very careful because these things can be something which can be dangerous to you because it can be very short-lived and you may go overboard thinking that you are cured. So the moral of the story is yes in a small percentage of people remission of diabetes is possible but in the majority of people it cannot be sustained for a long time and remission is usually temporary. I would say then rather than putting all your effort in trying to achieve remission of diabetes keep your diabetes under good control.

[00:04:32]Keep the ABC under control. The A1 C is A B is blood pressure. C is cholesterol and D is little bit of discipline, diet, exercise and regular checkup. If you follow the A B C D mantra, even if you don't achieve remission, you will be able to keep your diabetes under good control and thereby live for the next 40, 50, 60 or more years with diabetes without any complications whatsoever.

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