People can reverse their Type 2 diabetes through a combination of calorie cutting and medication, a small clinical trial says.

Overweight and obese adults caused their diabetes to go into remission by following a calorie-restricted diet and taking the prescription diabetes drug dapagliflozin, researchers reported Jan. 22 in The BMJ.

After a year, about 44% of participants following this combination were in remission for their Type 2 diabetes, compared with 28% in a group prescribed a placebo rather than dapagliflozin, results show.

“This study provides a practical strategy to achieve remission for patients with type 2 diabetes,” the research team led by Dr. Xiaoying Li, director of endocrinology and metabolism of Zhongshan Hospital at Fudan University in China, concluded.

Dapagliflozin is a sodium glucose co-transporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitor. It helps treat diabetes by preventing blood sugar from being absorbed in the kidneys; instead, excess glucose is excreted in urine.

For the study, researchers recruited more than 300 people in mainland China who’d had Type 2 diabetes for less than six years. The people were recruited between June 2020 and January 2023.

All participants were asked to cut their daily calorie intake by 500 to 750 calories, and to be physically active — 150 minutes of brisk walking every week, or more than 10,000 steps per day.

In addition, participants were randomly assigned to take either dapagliflozin or a placebo.

In all, 44% of those taking dapagliflozin along with the other measures saw their diabetes go into remission — defined as maintaining normal blood sugar levels for at least two months after stopping diabetic medication treatment.

They also lost more weight, an average 11 pounds versus 7 pounds for the placebo group, and had lower insulin resistance, results show.

Dapagliflozin patients also had better blood pressure and cholesterol levels, researchers added.

“The marked increase in type 2 diabetes remission levels with the addition of dapagliflozin to moderate calorie restriction is notable, showing the efficacy of this combination strategy,” noted an accompanying editorial co-written by Dr. David Hope, a consultant in diabetes and endocrinology with Imperial College London in the U.K.

The results show that SGLT-2 inhibitors like dapagliflozin can help people with diabetes lose weight without having to cut as many calories, the editorial said.

“The optimal balance of lifestyle components needs to be considered,” it said. “Achieving remission through less intense calorie restriction may prove more inclusive at the population level,” allowing more people to more easily get their diabetes into remission.