Can a low fasting C-Peptide improve over time- better dieting perhaps?
If you are a type 1, your C-peptide over time will keep decreasing. It might vary a little, and sometimes with outside insulin or certain drugs, or diet you might be able to prolong your production of insulin. And it might go up a little for a short while. But a type 1 loses the ability to make insulin because the beta cells are destroyed. C-peptide measures your bodies production of insulin.
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Okay thanks. I’m lada, positive GAD but not very high. Fasting c-peptide was 0.56 and slightly lower a year ago. I’m wondering if my pancreas can come back to life - like maybe the c peptide improves after better dieting.
My doctor wants me on a pump but I keep trying to improve diet and maybe avoid pump that way.
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A pump doesn’t necessarily mean better control, so don’t make decision based on doctor pushing you.
The latest pumps are getting “smarter”, and incorporate cgm readings to adjust insulin dosing. But many can get similar results with injections.
Do you have CGM? That may be all you need to help reach you BG goals.
This is a hopeful wish understandable to anyone who has endured a type 1 diabetes diagnosis. Unfortunately, the immune system attack on the pancreas may slow and produce an extended “honeymoon” period but it will not stop.
Eating a healthy diet brings many benefits but bringing your pancreas back to life is not one of them. Altering your diet and increasing exercise both can help extend your honeymoon period but will not arrest the autoimmune attack on your pancreas. Sorry – it’s an unfortunate reality we all need to accept. Let’s hope science and continued research can provide that situation in the future.
Pump therapy is not for everyone. You do not have to use a pump to manage your glucose levels well. As @MM1 suggests, considering a CGM may be a good tactic for you. Realize, however, that there are many happy pump users who find it a desirable way to live with T1D.
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It is quite common for T1s to undergo a honeymoon period where they produce some or enough insulin in their own and don’t need insulin shots.
In LADA in an adult the honeymoon process may be more prolonged, and extend for years, than in a T1 diagnosed as a child where the honeymoon may be measured in weeks.
It seems unlikely that diet has anything to do with the honeymoon length. It seems more likely to be determined by autoimmune attack.
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Its possible a lower carb diet will reduce demand on pancreas for insulin, and extend it a bit.
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Keep in mind a c-peptide is like a momentary snapshot, so unless you are getting them done more than on just one day (I’m assuming you’re doing fasting), you don’t really have a great sense of whether it is in fact overall lower or higher than last year. Also entirely possible that a small difference is within the error of the test and not necessarily a significant/interpretable difference anyway. It’s like if you took two fasting blood sugars a year apart and one was 103 and one was 114–without more data points, that may not actually reflect a real difference, given both that the difference is within error and it could be any number of factors besides time that are influencing the readings on each day.
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I asked my endo about increase in C-peptide on tests five years apart. He advise results were comparable (both 110% of reference) and the difference was differnet assay/different lab.
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