Type 2 Diabetes Remission Through Intense Lifestyle Modification with Three-Year Follow-Up of an Elderly Male on High Insulin Dosage: A Case Report

Abstract

An elderly obese male patient (60 yrs.) diagnosed Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) presented to our clinic. He was on 94 units of insulin and oral hypoglycemic agents during his initial consultation visit. After obtaining informed consent, he was enrolled into intense lifestyle modification program for a duration of six months, with a three-year follow-up after the intervention. The patient underwent complete remission losing 13 kg of body weight and also successfully clearing oral glucose tolerance tests (OGTT) for three consecutive years. We present three unique features in the current case report: (1) Elderly age of the patient (2) OGTT clearance along with normalisation of HbA_1c, and (3) High initial insulin dosage at baseline. A few of the common positive predictors of T2D remission documented in earlier studies include younger age and minimal or low doses of insulin. The current case study shows that older age and higher dosage of insulin, it is possible to undergo complete T2D remission along with OGTT clearance through intense holistic lifestyle modification. Future experimental studies with adequate sample sizes would help substantiate our observation.