Video Presentation - VT41

Diet as medicine: reversing the need for drugs.

Purpose: Diet can impact a person‘s health greatly. We studied the impact of low carb high fat(LCHF) diet on patients suffering from diabetes mellitus(DM). 
Methods: All patients coming to our tertiary care hospital with a history of long-standing and uncontrolled DM, on oral anti-diabetics and/or injection insulin were included in the study. Fasting blood sugar, HbA1c, duration of diabetes and weight in Kg was noted. Patients were put on LCHF diet and reviewed periodically. Biomarkers were measured in tears using multiplex Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) on presentation and follow ups. 
Results: We found compliance to follow-ups in 60% patients and all these had statistically significant loss of weight by average of 1-2Kg per month. 58% patients reduced their medications by half. 25% were able to completely go off medications and 18.3% off insulin. The tear biomarker assay found significant(p<0.05) reduction in levels of IL17A and MMP9 after versus before the initiation of the diet. 
Conclusion: Dietary modification to LCHF diet can help reverse lifestyle and metabolic disorders and their underlying metabolic complications successfully.