Remission Signs for Type II Diabetes

Video Transcript

"There are a couple of goals we want to think about in terms of Type II diabetes and one of them is laboratory values. In both cases with Type I and Type II diabetes, we want the LDL or the bad cholesterol to be under one hundred; and in some cases, doctors will suggest or want their patients to get a level of seventy or less on the bad cholesterol. We want the good cholesterol to be over forty-five. We want the fasting blood sugars, in general, to be between eighty and one-twenty and the two hour readings under one-forty. But those patients who can get in the normal range will be even doing better. So, we generally recommend someone who just has slightly high blood sugar to try to get their blood sugar in the normal range which is eighty to a hundred fasting and between eighty and one-twenty within two hours of a meal. Probably the most important number we look at how well someone is doing; is the hemoglobin A1C and that's the number that tells us how well someone is controlled or has been controlled over the last three months and so we generally recommend that a person with Type I has a hemoglobin A1C that is less than seven percent and for Type II, we generally want them to be as close to normal as possible; under six percent. What's really positive about Type II diabetes; is that in many cases one can go into remission and that means that there's no evidence of the diabetes anymore in terms of lab work, blood sugar checks or symptoms. And so the ultimate goal of someone with Type II diabetes is to put their Type II diabetes in remission. And the principal way to do that is for them to continue to work on their diet and their exercise regimen to make sure that their blood sugars are staying normal. Now, if someone does come to that point where they are in remission and they decide to go back to some old habits, the diabetes can come back. So, it's not a cure. It is a form of remission."