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Copyright ©The Author(s) 2018. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Diabetes. Jul 15, 2018; 9(7): 127-131
Published online Jul 15, 2018. doi: 10.4239/wjd.v9.i7.127
Reversibility of diabetes mellitus: Narrative review of the evidence
Gary Yee Ang
Gary Yee Ang, Health Services and Outcomes Research, National Healthcare Group, Singapore 138543, Singapore
Author contributions: Ang GY contributed to the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: No potential conflicts of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Gary Yee Ang, MBBS, Doctor, Health Services and Outcomes Research, National Healthcare Group, Fusionopolis 3, Singapore 138543, Singapore. gary_ang@nhg.com.sg
Telephone: +65-64966928 Fax: +65-64966257
Received: March 26, 2018
Peer-review started: March 27, 2018
First decision: April 13, 2018
Revised: April 19, 2018
Accepted: May 31, 2018
Article in press: May 31, 2018
Published online: July 15, 2018
Core Tip

Core tip: Diabetes mellitus is potentially reversible especially with bariatric surgery. Intensive medical management is promising but the evidence is weaker. The subgroup that is likely to go into prolonged remission is those with insulin resistance, short duration of diabetes and obesity. Further research is needed to identify those that can go into remission and how to use intensive medical management to achieve this.