Can you really reverse diabetes? Even if it works, sure it must be a 1% solution only?

Ever since I started sharing that Virta Health is on a mission to reverse type 2 diabetes in 100 million people, I’ve heard mostly skepticism regarding our ability to accomplish this goal. This skepticism is understandable given our global type 2 diabetes (t2dm) epidemic is only getting worse and the diabetes drugs alone cost $33Billion per year in the U.S. If this chronic disease can be systematically reversed, it would be transformative to our economy and human health.

The typical objections come in two forms: “haha, good luck, you can’t reverse even one case, it’s a chronic disease!” or, a more nuanced line of questioning that focuses on four common hurdles. Over the last few years my focus has been on systematically proving that we can overcome each and every one of these hurdles.

1. Can you really reverse type 2 diabetes (t2dm) beyond a few anomalies?
   YES. Our first step was to run a large scale clinical trial (N~400 of which N=262 with formal diagnosis of t2dm with average duration of 8.4yrs since t2dm diagnosis) in the middle of America to test if our hypothesis was right and publish results in a peer-reviewed journal. Indeed, in just under three months we either eliminated or lowered diabetes drugs AND brought 56% of the patients with t2dm into non-diabetic blood glucose (A1C) range. In other words, the rapid t2dm reversal that Robin (20 years with t2dm and on insulin, now completely off of it) experienced was not an anomaly, but happened in more than half the Virta patients and only 9% dropped out.
2. But…do the results last? I’ve heard of 1, 2, 3 month results before!
   YES. That is a good question, as chronic diseases tend to get worse over time and historically at least all weight loss services fail (on average results basis) after 3–6 months of caloric restriction and even bariatric surgery patient start to regain their weight back.
   Our clinical trial is now 2+ years in and we’ve publicly shared our 6 month results which show that even more patients get off of diabetes medications and further lower their blood glucose since the first three months. Similarly, our preliminary 1 year results presented at the American Diabetes Association (ADA) meeting in 2017 similarly demonstrate improved results compared to our first publication. We will report our results up to 5 years in peer-reviewed literature to put this question to rest.
3. But...maybe it works, maybe it lasts, but will most people stick to it!?
   YES. The average adherence to a chronic disease medication protocol(i.e. “take a pill”) is about 50%. The Virta intervention, admittedly, is intensive. In our first peer-reviewed paper, 91% of our patients were still engaged. This strong engagement and retention seems to continue long term, as we reported at the ADA meeting in 2017. We will share long-term engagement and retention details in peer-reviewed literature soon. Virta may not be as easy as popping one pill in the morning, but our patients seem to prefer that over adhering to a drug, as measured by long term retention as well as overall patient Net Promoter Score (NPS).
4. But…there’s no way it’s “for everyone”, your trial wasn’t even a Randomized Controlled Trial, so Virta must be a 1% solution for those with high will power!?
   Perhaps only in North Korea is something for everyone, i.e. the 100% solution. In America and most countries people do and take things by choice. And in individualized medicine, nothing is a 100% solution. Same applies to Virta. However, we’ve now deployed Virta in several commercial populations and have typically seen ~200% better enrollment (in other words ~3X the number of patients experienced benefits leaders would expect) relative to expectations. We may not be a 100% solution, but most people living with t2dm are very excited to try the Virta intervention that reverses their diabetes without required exercise, dieting or with risky surgery or pharmaceuticals. Mark — who has had t2dm for 20 years before joining Virta — says “this doesn’t just work for Mark, it can work for anyone”.

After getting this far in the reasoning, most people either accept that t2dm reversal is real or simply think I’m making things up. Those who believe in the former, continue:

Q: Wow, if that really is true, doesn’t it mean that everybody living with t2dm should have access to Virta and if it works, entire industries will change?
A: Well, we are working on that.

Q: If all this is true, why hasn’t anyone done this before?
A: Why didn’t anyone do Tesla or Google or Facebook first. They seem so obvious now. Somebody had to do Virta first and just five years ago the science, technology and regulatory landscape wasn’t ready.

If you’re interested in what we are up to, drop us a line and consider joining our team. If you’re paying others’ health care bills, note that we also put our money where out mouth is and don’t want to get paid unless we deliver results with all our patients. That’s why health plans and employers have all the reason to gain economically too.