Remission is Real: Reversing Type 2 Diabetes & Metabolic Syndrome - Patient’s Journey & Cardiologist’s Perspective
Wed, 09 Dec
|Zoom
From Diagnosis of Chronic Diseases to Reversing Them with Lifestyle Changes — A Professor's Journey Guided by “Optimization Under Uncertainty” and A Cardiologist's View on Remaining Risks
Time & Location
09 Dec 2026, 7:30 pm – 8:30 pm SGT
Zoom
About the Event
Description:
What happens when a patient diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, obesity, high cholesterol, and elevated blood pressure decides to take a different path?
When initially offered medication to manage his cardiometabolic conditions, our guest patient, Prof. Melvyn Sim, decided to give lifestyle changes three months to make a difference. What followed was a remarkable journey of transforming his health — achieving remission of type 2 diabetes and reversing other components of metabolic syndrome.
He first transformed his dietary habits and eating patterns, then turned a sedentary lifestyle into an active one, and along the way built meaningful social connections that helped sustain his new routines.
But there is another fascinating dimension to Prof. Sim's story. As a professor of NUS Business School, specializing in optimization models and decision-making under uncertainty, he approached his own health as an ongoing optimization challenge. He immersed himself in scientific evidence, evaluated risks and benefits, and explored what it truly means to optimize health when outcomes are uncertain and no single intervention offers all the answers.
Although most of the patient's risk factors have improved or resolved, some questions remain — and that is why SGLM has invited Dr. Vinay Bahadur Panday from the National University Heart Centre Singapore to join the discussion and explore any remaining cardiometabolic risks and opportunities for further health optimization.
The Singaporean Society of Lifestyle Medicine (SGLM) is introducing Remission is Real, a new interactive educational format that brings the patient himself into the conversation alongside an invited specialist physician.
Together, we will explore not only what worked and why, but also the questions that remain:
How can lifestyle interventions lead to type 2 diabetes remission and improvements in cardiometabolic risk factors?
How can dietary choices, physical activity, and social connections be further optimized for sustainable health and wellbeing?
What residual cardiovascular and metabolic risks may remain even after significant improvements?
How should patients and clinicians navigate scientific evidence, uncertainty, and decisions about medication and lifestyle interventions?
This is not simply a success story. It is a conversation about evidence, personal agency, clinical decision-making, and the complexities of optimizing long-term health.
Join us for a fresh and thought-provoking discussion that brings together the patient's lived experience, the specialist's clinical expertise, and the science of lifestyle medicine.
Presenters:
Patient: Provost's Chair Professor Melvyn Sim, Analytics and Operations, NUS Business School
Guest Panelist: Dr. Vinay Bahadur Panday, Associate Consultant, FAMS, FACC, National University Heart Centre Singapore
Moderator: Dr. Miina Öhman, MD, PhD, DipIBLM, President, Singaporean Society of Lifestyle Medicine (SGLM)
Note: A recording of this talk will be available after the event exclusively for SGLM members.
About the Presenters
Patient:
Provost's Chair Professor Melvyn Sim,
Analytics and Operations, NUS Business School
Professor Melvyn Sim is a Provost's Chair Professor in the Department of Analytics and Operations at the NUS Business School. He holds a PhD in Operations Research from the MIT. His research focuses on robust optimization and decision-making under uncertainty, with applications including healthcare, finance and supply chain management.
His professional interest in making better decisions took on a personal dimension when he was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Instead of starting medication immediately, he decided to try lifestyle changes and see how that could work. Through changes to his diet, fasting and gradually building a regular exercise, he has lost 25 kg from his peak weight, and his diabetes has been in remission for two years. His health journey, featured in SAFRA's NSMAN magazine, also took him from a largely sedentary lifestyle to completing a sub-4h marathon.
In this webinar, Melvyn will share his personal path to regaining health, and the analytical perspective he brings to understanding medical data and published studies. He will discuss how he weighs evidence, considers the relevance of population findings to individual circumstances, and uses his own health measurements to inform decisions. His story also highlights the role of sustainable habits and community support in maintaining progress.
Connect with Professor Melvyn Sim:
Website:
https://iora.nus.edu.sg/people-p/melvyn-sim/
LinkedIn profile:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/melvyn-sim-71b8981/
Melvyn’s story in SAFRA NSMAN magazine:
Guest Panelist:
Dr. Vinay Bahadur Panday,
Associate Consultant, FAMS, FACC, National University Heart Centre Singapore
Dr Vinay Bahadur Panday is presently an Associate Consultant with the Department of Cardiology, National University Heart Centre, Singapore (NUHCS).
Currently, Dr Vinay serves as an Associate Consultant in NUHCS (Kent Ridge Campus) and Jurong Medical Centre. His clinical interests are in the various aspects of Preventive Cardiology including lipid management, cardiovascular risk stratification, CT coronary angiogram to detect subclinical atherosclerosis and sleep disorders (OSA). He is also keenly involved in Population Health initiatives, particularly in areas focusing on community-specialist integration and optimizing health care delivery.
Dr Vinay is also involved in teaching activities. He is a clinical lecturer with the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, NUS and serves as a core faculty for the Cardiology Senior Residency Programme.
Connect with Dr. Vinay Bahadur Panday:
Website:
https://www.nuh.com.sg/care-at-nuh/find-a-doctor/doctor-details/vinay-bahadur-panday
LinkedIn profile:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/vinay-bahadur-panday-b2b717199/
Registration
This webinar is open to all