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Low carb diet leads to “clinical remission” in 3 cases of type 1 diabetes

diabetes.co.uk

31–40 of 148 posts

Re: Low carb diet leads to “clinical remission” in 3 cases of type 1 diabetes

#31

I'm a type 1 diabetic and find these articles and studies frustrating. Or at least the way people interpret them. > Two weeks after adopting the low carb approach insulin was no longer needed. After 18 months insulin therapy was once again required at low doses of around 16 units per day. HbA1c remained very well controlled on the LCHF diet with insulin. So during the honeymoon period, he was able to live without ins…

Same feelings as you on this one - not that it isn’t par for the course with most science journalism, but it’s especially frustrating for T1 news. Perpetually thankful that we’re only five years from a cure.

Yeah, it's always the same. Either we're five years away from the cure, a magical cure was just discovered, or somebody just "discovered" that keto can cure T1D.

Re: Low carb diet leads to “clinical remission” in 3 cases of type 1 diabetes

#32
post #13
post #4

I was on a low-carb diet for a while. Loved it. Felt great. Was totally fit. All my digestive problems cleared up. I would never get "hangry". By every single subjective measure my quality of life and sense of well-being improved. Then I got my cholesterol checked during a routine blood work and it was through the roof. WTF? Anyone know better than me about this?

Anecdotal, but the same happened to me. I later fixed it by running for 30 minutes 3x per week, and continue do to so to this day. LDL, HDL, Triglycerides, and blood pressure are all in the healthy ranges. 5.5 years and counting, with no "cheat" days either.

Yep. Exercise is the answer here. Moderate exercise will help your body to produce HDL cholesterol, which aids in removing unhealthy LDL and Triglycerides from your blood stream. According to my doctor, having a higher ratio of HDL to LDL cholesterol is far more important number than the total cholesterol level.

Re: Low carb diet leads to “clinical remission” in 3 cases of type 1 diabetes

#33
post #4

I was on a low-carb diet for a while. Loved it. Felt great. Was totally fit. All my digestive problems cleared up. I would never get "hangry". By every single subjective measure my quality of life and sense of well-being improved. Then I got my cholesterol checked during a routine blood work and it was through the roof. WTF? Anyone know better than me about this?

I'm glad you found a diet that works for you, makes you feel healthier, and has improved you QoL.

But it's not a panacea, and it's certainly not a cure for type 1 diabetes.

Re: Low carb diet leads to “clinical remission” in 3 cases of type 1 diabetes

#34
I’ve seen a friend diagnosed with type 2 diabetes return his insulin levels to normal through diet, exercise and cutting out alcohol. It just takes more discipline than most people have. Edit: I’m presuming he had T2 because he didn’t get it as a child, but reading this thread I see T1 can be diagnosed as an adult: I did not know that.

Honestly I am trying to have the same discipline myself after seeing the results, because I wish to avoid the harmful effects of a poor diet and get the benefits of a good one. I am not managing to do it yet - and I’m not sure a health scare would motivate me enough either...

Re: Low carb diet leads to “clinical remission” in 3 cases of type 1 diabetes

#35

I'm a type 1 diabetic and find these articles and studies frustrating. Or at least the way people interpret them. > Two weeks after adopting the low carb approach insulin was no longer needed. After 18 months insulin therapy was once again required at low doses of around 16 units per day. HbA1c remained very well controlled on the LCHF diet with insulin. So during the honeymoon period, he was able to live without ins…

Hugely reducing insulin dosing is still probably valuable, especially for Americans since it's so expensive.

Re: Low carb diet leads to “clinical remission” in 3 cases of type 1 diabetes

#36
post #26

From last year (July 2019), and no follow-up. As someone who has to deal with T1D every day and carefully monitors news about research, I guarantee you no endocrinologist is counseling their patients to try this. Cutting carbs can lead to less need for insulin, but it's not a cure for T1D.

Yep. When I've consciously gone low carb, my insulin requirements have gone down, and my blood sugar was much more manageable. But if I had stopped taking insulin entirely I would have died or ended up in the hospital with DKA.

Re: Low carb diet leads to “clinical remission” in 3 cases of type 1 diabetes

#37

I'm a type 1 diabetic and find these articles and studies frustrating. Or at least the way people interpret them. > Two weeks after adopting the low carb approach insulin was no longer needed. After 18 months insulin therapy was once again required at low doses of around 16 units per day. HbA1c remained very well controlled on the LCHF diet with insulin. So during the honeymoon period, he was able to live without ins…

Hugely reducing insulin dosing is still probably valuable, especially for Americans since it's so expensive.

Yes, but any T1D is acutely aware of this fact. The whole treatment regimen is ratioing carbs to insulin.

Re: Low carb diet leads to “clinical remission” in 3 cases of type 1 diabetes

#38
post #4

I was on a low-carb diet for a while. Loved it. Felt great. Was totally fit. All my digestive problems cleared up. I would never get "hangry". By every single subjective measure my quality of life and sense of well-being improved. Then I got my cholesterol checked during a routine blood work and it was through the roof. WTF? Anyone know better than me about this?

Low carb doesn't have to mean lots of meat, cheese, and fat. Most people would have positive outcomes from a diet that is 75% whole-food, plant-based no matter what the remaining 25% is.

Sorry but you're just completely factually wrong.

Potatoes, rice and bananas are whole-food, plant based, and are pretty much the highest carb you can go. And plants without starches and sugars simply don't have many calories at all. You can't survive on broccoli alone.

If you're doing low-carb and getting the calories you need, there's no physically possibly way to get those calories except through protein and fat -- they're literally the only other 2 macronutrients.

So yes, low carb always means lots of meat, cheese and/or fat. Or else you'd basically just be fasting.

Re: Low carb diet leads to “clinical remission” in 3 cases of type 1 diabetes

#39
Your foot hurts when putting weight on it? Solution: never put weight on it again, ever. Your foot is now "cured".

That's how LCHF diets "cure" insulin problems. Of course the issue is much more complex but as long as the patient cannot go back to eating carbohydrates normally nothing got cured.

Re: Low carb diet leads to “clinical remission” in 3 cases of type 1 diabetes

#40
post #28
post #4

I was on a low-carb diet for a while. Loved it. Felt great. Was totally fit. All my digestive problems cleared up. I would never get "hangry". By every single subjective measure my quality of life and sense of well-being improved. Then I got my cholesterol checked during a routine blood work and it was through the roof. WTF? Anyone know better than me about this?

Your assumptions about high cholesterol being bad are wrong, simple as that. Just as a few decades ago, the popular (even as agreed upon within medical industry) assumptions about "low fat" were wrong. In other words, the measurement you observed was good . Your brain needs that measured value you were tested at to be high. Your health would suffer if it wasn't. There is tons of research and discussion about this onl…

so. this is so general that it’s not helpful. what ranges are we talking about?

also, when people talk about cholesterol they usually don’t mean cholesterol they mean lipi-proteins that carry the cholesterol through the blood (cholesterol needs this as it’s hydrophobic). LDL from those lipo-proteins is definitely correlated with heart disease.

Here, read about it in more detail than you probably need to know: https://peterattiamd.com/the-straight-dope-on-cholesterol-pa...

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