To cure a disease would usually mean to bring back to normal the underlying abnormal body function of the disease. To reverse a disease is usually taken to mean to bring about improvement to the underlying cause, signs and symptoms and potential complications of the diseases.

Diabetes, like most other chronic diseases, is not a absolutely curable disease as opposed to most infectious diseases for eg. where it can be cured, that is one either has the infection or not. A person with a bacterial infection treated by antibiotics may be cured of the infection as compared to diabetic, who after undertaking a guided comprehensive lifestyle modification programme, successfully improve his/her condition to extent of being able to achieve good blood glucose control (for eg. good HbA1c levels) to the extent of being able to adjust the need for or dosage of their diabetes medication – in the latter example, we could only say the person has reversed the severity of his/her diabetic condition and could not say he/she has ‘cured’ his/her diabetes.

So we cannot completely cure type 2 diabetes. But Type 2 Diabetes can go into remission. When diabetes is in remission, you have no signs or symptoms of it.