RE: correct diet for a Type-1 diabetic.

May 28, 2006

I really dispute this article. 1. Diagnosing a type 1 diagetic soon enough

to get to them before their isle os Langerhans interirely stops producing

insulin is really rare. Also, many type 1 with onset of diagnoses (children)

have a " honeymoon " period that may happen and last for as long as a year

after diagnosis where their Isles of Langerhans seem to temperorily recover

and produce insulin for short period only to conmpletely fail and there is

absolutely no insulin production ever, so the injection of insulin is

absolutely necessary. Who is this person writing these articles?

"

correct diet for a Type-1 diabetic.

Diabetes. Part 7: The correct diet for a Type-1 diabetic.

TYPE-1 DIABETES

Type-1 diabetes normally affects young people, commonly around the ages of

ten or twelve, although it can occur as early as one year and as late as

forty.

The disease tends to develop rapidly and is severe. In this form of the

disease, the beta cells of the pancreas do not produce enough insulin. This

type

of diabetes is called either type-1 diabetes or, more technically, insulin

dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM).

Two kinds of problems occur when the body doesn't make sufficient insulin:

Hyperglycemia occurs when blood glucose levels get too high. This can occur

when the body gets too little insulin or there is too much glucose in the

bloodstream.

Untreated, hyperglycemia may develop into ketoacidosis, a very serious

condition. Treatment is invariably with insulin injections to make up the

shortfall

and reduce blood glucose levels.

Hypoglycemia is the exact opposite of hyperglycemia. This occurs when blood

glucose levels get too low, when the body gets too much insulin or too

little

food. Hypoglycemia is the most common problem in children with diabetes

usually caused by diabetic insulin overdose, a missed meal or unexpected

exercise.

Usually it is mild and is easily treated by giving the child something

sweet. It is hypoglycaemia, however, that is dangerous if left untreated as

it can

lead to coma and death.

EARLY SYMPTOMS OF HYPOGLYCAEMIA:

Feeling shaky or irritable

Feeling dizzy or lightheaded

Feeling hot, followed by excessive sweating

Blurred vision and/or slurred speech

Tingling or numbness in the mouth or lips

Headache

WHAT IS HYPOGLYCAEMIA?

Block quote start

Hypoglycemia occurs when the blood sugar levels are abnormally low. In some

cases, hypoglycemia can cause a person to become aggressive or seem

uncooperative,

which can easily be mistaken for drunkenness by people who do not know about

the effects of hypoglycemia. In extreme cases, hypoglycemia can cause a

person

to become unconscious. If this happens to someone you are with, seek medical

assistance immediately and inform those providing treatment that the person

has diabetes.

Block quote end

Type-1 can be induced by anything that causes the beta cells in the pancreas

to malfunction. This could be a physical trauma, infectious disease,

allergy,

autoimmune disease or tumour. Generally, however, type-1 is believed to be

an inherited form of the disease as it is more likely to occur in people who

have close relatives with diabetes. But this seems unlikely, as type-1

diabetes is not found in the animal kingdom either in meat or plant eating

animals,

where those animals live in their natural habitat. Neither does type-1

diabetes exist amongst peoples who have not had extensive contact with the

industrialised

societies: the Inuit, Maasai, Hunza, and other indigenous peoples whose

diets are typically low in carbohydrates.

1

While not a single case of type-1 diabetes has been found among the meat-

and fat-eating Inuit population of Alaska, there have been cases of the

maturity

onset type of diabetes.

2

These appear to be the result of increasing carbohydrates introduced into

the modern Inuit diet by 'civilisation'.

As diabetes is wholly restricted to peoples of Western industrialised

civilisation, it cannot have a genetic origin, except insofar as peoples

with differing

evolutionary backgrounds do have differing levels of the disease.

Maternal diet

Family dietary traits and lifestyle can play a major part in the appearance

of type-1 diabetes within families. If a pregnant woman eats too much

carbohydrate,

this will raise her insulin levels. It is not thought that insulin itself

crosses the placenta from mother to foetus. However, insulin produces

antibodies

that do.

3

Once in the foetus these increase glycogen and fat deposits resulting in an

abnormally large baby. It may predispose that baby to type-1 diabetes.

Birth weight is also predictive of future diabetes. A Norwegian population

based cohort study by record linkage of the medical birth registry and the

National

Childhood Diabetes Registry looked at all live births in Norway between 1974

and 1998 (1,382,602 individuals).

4

Over a maximum of 15 years of observation, a total of 8 184 994 person years

of observation in the period 1989 to 1998, 1824 children with type 1

diabetes

were diagnosed between 1989 and 1998. There was a direct linear increased

incidence of type 1 diabetes with increasing birth weight. It was relatively

weak but significant. The rate ratio for children with birth weights 4500 g

or more was 2.21 times as many as compared with those with birth weights

less

than 2000 g.

Thus, the way an expectant mother eats can be expected to have an effect on

the future health of her offspring. She – I say 'she' because mother usually

controls a family's food – will also influence the way her children eat.

They usually eat the way she does so it is important that mother sets a good

example.

Conventional treatment

The medical profession generally regards type-1 diabetes is incurable. It is

managed conventionally with a carbohydrate-based, low-fat diet. As the

carbohydrates

in such a diet inevitably put large amounts of glucose in the bloodstream,

daily insulin injections have to be administered to bring these high levels

of glucose in the blood down to normal. For the patient, this means walking

a tightrope for life, as exactly the right amount of insulin must be given

or it will either reduce glucose levels too much or not enough. As we saw

earlier, insulin supplementation is a serious health hazard.

But the Type-1 diabetic rarely produces no insulin at all. Even in severe

cases, at the time of initial diagnosis five to fifteen percent of the

pancreas's

beta cells usually survive to produce insulin. If these are relieved of the

burden of continually having to reduce excessive levels of blood glucose,

they

can usually produce sufficient insulin for the variety of other metabolic

processes that need it.

There is a better way

A Polish doctor, Jan Kwasniewski, has successfully treated type-1 diabetics

for over thirty years merely by reducing their carbohydrate intake to 'an

amount

dictated by the insulin-producing capacity of the sufferer'.

5

This amount, he says, typically equates to 1.5 grams of carbohydrate per

kilogram body weight for a growing child and between forty and fifty grams

for

an adult. With this regime, the main energy source is dietary animal fat. On

such a diet, his type-1 diabetic patients no longer need to use insulin.

But is is essential that this dietary treatment is started immedately as, if

it is not begun as soon as diagnosis is confirmed, the beta cells will

continue

to deteriorate and, once they are lost, they never recover.

The dietary regime is similar to that in

Part 6

of this series. The basic principle is to reduce carb intake (and so reduce

insulin requirement) and allow the body to burn fats as its primary energy

source.

But be aware that proteins as well as carbs can raise blood glucose levels.

For this reason, the cut-back on carbs must be made up with fats – NOT

proteins.

The type-1 diabetic is in quite a different position from the type-2. By

definition, there will be little beta cell activity and all type-1 diabetics

differ

in their insulin output. Thus this dietary regime, just like any other, must

be monitored carefully, at least at first until its effects are known. If

there is some insulin being produced it may be possible to stop injecting

altogether. If there is none, you will still have to inject – but you will

inject

less.

References

1. Yudkin J. Evolutionary and historical changes in dietary carbohydrates.

Am J Clin Nutr. 1967; 20: 108-115.

2. JAMA March 27, 1967

3. Menon R K, et al. Transplacental passage of insulin in pregnant women

with insulin dependent diabetes mellitus: its role in fetal macrosomia. N

Eng J

Med 1990; 323: 309-15

4. Stene LC, Magnus P, Lie RT, et al. The Norwegian Childhood Diabetes Study

Group. Birth weight and childhood onset type 1 diabetes: population based

cohort

study. BMJ 2001; 322 : 889-892

5. Kwasniewski J, Chylinski M. Homo Optimus. Wydawnictwo WGP, Warsaw, 2000:

163-6.

May 28, 2006

Hi Harry and ,

I had the same thoughts about this article as you did, . I also

don't like how the article seems to " blame " the mother for their child's

diagnosis when, really, no one knows exactly what causes type 1. It's partly

genetics in that some people are more susceptible to developing type 1 than

others, and partly environmental in that something (no one knows what yet)

is needed to " trigger " the gene that starts the immune system attacking the

beta cells. Since type 1 comes on so suddenly with its symptoms it would be

very hard to catch it in its early stages, and I've read that by the time

symptoms develop 90% of the insulin-producing cells are destroyed, although

they think the immune system attack may go on for months or possibly years

prior to being diagnosed. Once symptoms develop if at that point 90% of beta

cells are destroyed, any insulin still being produced is not enough to

control blood sugar levels, except possibly during the honeymoon period.

I've also read research that although there have been studies looking at how

to prolong the honeymoon period for longer than a year, it always eventually

ends and the type 1 diabetic will need insulin.

Jen

May 28, 2006

Exactly, . I don't know who this person is writing these articles,

but he seems to twist facts to fit his ideas.

Re: correct diet for a Type-1 diabetic.