Right now, in New Orleans, 12,000 of the world’s top diabetes researchers are gathered at the ADA 2026 Scientific Sessions. The headlines pouring out of that meeting this week are dominated by one thing: GLP-1 drugs got bigger. The 25 mg dose of the latest incretin therapies produced larger A1c reductions. More weight loss. Better glucose numbers. The American Diabetes Association’s coverage of the late-breaking trial data is being read across the field this we
And a quieter question is worth asking alongside the celebration: stronger GLP-1s are still managing the disease. They are not reversing it.
What’s Actually Happening at ADA 2026
The buzz this week centers on high-dose incretin therapies — the next generation of GLP-1 and GLP-1/GIP drugs built on the backs of Ozempic, Mounjaro, and Zepbound. The new 25 mg formulations are showing bigger A1c drops and more weight loss than their lower-dose predecessors. Researchers are calling it a meaningful step forward. They’re not wrong about the numbers.
Once-weekly basal insulin for Type 2 is also approaching FDA approval, which would mean fewer injections and easier regimens for millions of Americans currently on daily insulin.
On the surface, this is great news. Bigger A1c reductions. Less weight. Fewer shots. Worth acknowledging.
A Different Question to Sit With
The question is simple: what happens when you stop taking the drug?
That’s the part the ADA program never gets to. The clinical trials measure A1c while the patient is on the medication. The moment they come off, the A1c climbs back. The weight returns. The diabetes comes back. That’s not reversal. That’s rented remission.
GLP-1 drugs are doing exactly what they were designed to do: lower blood sugar and suppress appetite while you’re taking them. They are not addressing the root cause of Type 2 Diabetes — the metabolic dysfunction, the dietary patterns, the cellular resistance that drove the disease in the first place. The conversation worth having is whether “more effective” is the same thing as “the right path to the outcome most patients actually want.”
Additional criticisms of long-term incretin-based therapies were recently published in the National Library of Medicine.
Two Different Outcomes Worth Naming
In diabetes care, there is a distinction that most patients never hear clearly defined:
- Management means keeping blood sugar in an acceptable range while the underlying disease remains active. Medications, insulin, and GLP-1s all fall into this category. The disease is still present. The prescriptions are still required.
- Reversal means the disease is no longer measurable in the body. A1C below 6.4 without medication. Sustained long-term. No prescriptions to refill. No shots to inject.
One is a path the healthcare system is well-equipped to support. The other is a different path entirely. Both are valid. The point isn’t to dismiss one in favor of the other — it’s to make sure patients know both exist, and to let them choose.
What the Research Shows About Reversal
A growing body of peer-reviewed evidence demonstrates that Type 2 Diabetes can be put into remission — and in many cases full reversal — through structured nutritional intervention, supplementation, and sustained lifestyle change. The mechanism isn’t a drug. It works at the cellular level by addressing the metabolic dysfunction, insulin resistance, and dietary drivers that caused the disease in the first place.
Research from Newcastle University — including the original Counterpoint study and follow-ups published in peer-reviewed journals — has shown that a significant percentage of Type 2 diabetics can reach A1c below the diabetic threshold and stop their medications entirely when given a structured reversal protocol rather than a prescription pad. The NHS’s own position on Type 2 remission acknowledges that remission is possible through intensive weight management.
The constraint has never been whether reversal is possible. The constraint has been that the standard care pathway hasn’t historically offered it as a first-line option.
What to Watch Next
Three things worth following out of ADA 2026 and the months ahead:
- Real-world GLP-1 discontinuation data — when patients stop taking Ozempic, Mounjaro, or Zepbound, what happens to their A1c and weight at 6, 12, and 24 months? This data is starting to emerge and will shape how the medical community talks about long-term outcomes. Worth watching the peer-reviewed coverage in journals like Diabetes Care.
- The push toward GLP-1 combinations — pairing GLP-1s with amylin analogs, GIP, or even muscle- preserving agents. More shots, more side effects, more cost. The market is moving toward a more comprehensive pharmacological approach.
- The slow institutional acknowledgment of remission as an outcome — ADA‘s own consensus reports now include “remission” as a defined endpoint. That language did not exist in their standards of care a decade ago. It is changing because the patient demand for actual reversal is real and growing
The Bottom Line
The ADA 2026 meeting will produce real, measurable improvements in how Type 2 diabetes is managed with medication. Stronger GLP-1s. Weekly insulin. Better tools for the doctor with the prescription pad.
If your goal is management, those are real wins.
If your goal is to never refill another prescription, never inject yourself again, and never get another “your A1c is up” phone call from your doctor, there’s a different path. Both deserve to be on the table.
To see what the Type 2 diabetes reversal protocol looks like in practice, the full breakdown is on our main page. Patient outcomes and stories are available on our testimonial page for anyone who wants to see real before-and-after results, and the free reversal webinar walks through the science and the steps in detail.
By:
Dr. Jeffrey Hockings
Co-Founder/CEO
Diabetes Reversal Group
Kristine Burke, MD
Chief Medical Officer
Diabetes Reversal Group