My Lifestyle Platform
Can you push back type 2 diabetes with a six-month programme? The Dutch programme KeerDiabetes2Om ('Reverse Diabetes 2') set out to find the answer, with 234 participants. The results were published in the scientific journal BMJ Nutrition, Prevention & Health.
Participants worked in groups of twenty. They started with a two-day workshop and returned after one, three and six months — only a few days of professional guidance in total. In those days they learned to eat a Mediterranean diet with fewer carbohydrates (less bread, pasta, potatoes and sugar), took cooking courses, started moving more and worked on relaxation and stress.
Two years later, the results were remarkable. 28% of participants no longer used any diabetes medication at all. Of those injecting insulin, 71% were able to stop. Participants lost on average 7.1 kilos and 7.9 centimetres of waist circumference, rated their health 7.3 instead of 6.9 — and felt clearly less tired. To grasp how special that is: with type 2 diabetes, medication is normally built up over time, not scaled down.
The programme is now widely recognised: KeerDiabetes2Om is reimbursed by Dutch health insurance and has been elected a best practice, with the ambition to expand to twelve other European countries.
Programmes like this inspire our roadmap. My Lifestyle Platform aims to take the everyday, non-medical work out of lifestyle support — planning, recipes, reminders, community — so programmes and coaches can spend their time on people. The programme itself, and all medical decisions, stay with the professionals who run it.
The stories and studies on this page are informational — not medical advice. Individual results vary; never change medication or treatment without consulting your doctor.