What is brittle Diabetes? Well, the definition is…
Brittle diabetes: A type of diabetes when a person’s blood glucose (sugar) level often swings quickly from high to low and from low to high. Also called “unstable diabetes” or “labile diabetes.”
Labile diabetes: A type of diabetes when a person’s blood glucose (sugar) level often swings quickly from high to low and from low to high. Also called “unstable diabetes” or “brittle diabetes.”
My blood sugar swings quickly from high to low/ low to high. Am I brittle? Who determines you are brittle? Do you determine this, your family/friends or your Doctor?.. this term seems so 1970’s to me. Do you hear people using this term anymore?
I’ve been labelled brittle, but I’ve never really liked the term. This is entirely my opinion, and I have no facts on which to base this, but I’ve always thought that it’s just a matter of how well you control your diabetes. If you don’t control them well or you give yourself too much insulin or something, then they can label you brittle.
In any case, the label doesn’t really help. It’s not like the doctor can prescribe you some magic pill that makes your blood sugars more stable if you’ve been diagnosed as being brittle. You just deal with how you are and how your blood sugars work.
I am not a 70’s diabetic…and my dris a diabetic himself. He has spen a lot of time reviewing my log books, pump and meter downloads…he does not use the term lightly, he also know sit is not because I am not trying
We are probably going to try symlin next to see if it evens out the bumps…kinda makes sense, and apparently there is no test to see if you are making any amylin yet.
It’s nothing new. I knew a couple who were brittle and one big difference is that, if they were high, they had to refrain from eating no matter how hungry they were. If they were low, they had better move fast but carefully so they don’t do high again. They can drop like a stone in seconds.
I was once called a brittle diabetic. Nothing further ever came from it because I was not referred to as that in my record.???
The term “brittle” is frowned upon by endos these days, that term is no longer used. But I assume, though Type 1 is hard to control for anyone with the disease, “brittle” would refer to those who have very unstable blood sugars, not easily responsive to basal/bolus patterns, constantly changing, making control difficult because it is hard to pinpoint the cause of swings in blood sugars. Children in puberty teen years often are brittle by this definition. I know this is due to growth and other hormones. I do not know if this stabilizes once the child is an adult (I am assuming and hoping so). I am somewhat confused if this is the norm for all Type 1s? Or if, after all beta cells are destroyed, greater instability occurs. Those who still have some beta cell function would have more stable blood sugars. In other words, is there any way to figure out if you have residual beta cell function?
I’ve heard what Jan wrote-- that brittle refers to being very unresponsive to set doses (more so than the tweaking we all do). It really is an ugly term.
Wouldn’t a C-peptide test show if there’s any beta cell activity?
