Hello, I am 33 yrs old and recently diagnosed with a late onset Type 1 diabetes. I was diagnosed more by coincidence rather than showing typical symptoms and have very low insulin requirements as of yet.(Fasting glucose beween 80- 100 mf/dl, post-prandial rarely over 130 - since starting low carb)
After I read a lot about my new illness and also started learning about the effectiveness of controlling glucose levels by sticking to a low carb diet I find myself in a big dilemma: I am on now for about 6 weeks on such a low carb diet which makes control easy, so easy in fact that I find it hard to take even small amounts of insulin. But from all I read it seems that preserving remaining beta cell function is largely helped by use of external insulin. What am I to do? Eat more carbs so I can inject a bit of insulin ever day? I found if I do that I still have blood sugar spiking which i want to avoid! I also dont want to risk hypoglycemia, but I am very worried that I am taking away my own chances of preserving my beta cells if I keep prolonging insulin use, but dont know how to keep eating low carb and inject at the same time.... I would love to hear advice from people who find themselves in a similar situation...
Willkommen to TuDiabetes. Your residual beta cells are confronted with higher glucose levels. So their reaction is to produce insulin instead of dividing themselves to regrow new cells. With exogenous insulin they can focus more in the reproductive side. Often this will lead to a phase of beta cell regrowth called honeymoon. But at the end this is all under the constraints of the immune system. If the immune response is really strong the little regrowth will not help much. Research has shown that all T1 diabetics have some residual beta cells left. I do not think that the eating behaviour made the difference why one person preserves more residual beta cells than the other.
Actually I would like to encourage you to learn how to inject the right amount of insulin for the carbohydrates to eat. Eat a moderate number of carbs like 100g per day. Try different insulins to find the one that fits for your profile: NovoRapid or NovoLog as it is called in the US versus Apidra OR Lantus versus Levemir (there are even different injection patterns to try). You need this practice because very likely you will develop full grown T1 in one or two years.
julez - I was diagnosed with T1D at the age of 30, back in 1984. Your level of knowledge and interest is light years ahead of where I was. I'm sorry I can't offer you any practical advice. I just want to encourage you to learn as much as you can and to keep asking questions! Do your own research and don't just depend on your doctor or endocrinologist.
I know that there are some research protocols that focus on preserving and extending beta cell function in newly diagnosed T1D's. You sound like you would fit their eligibility criteria. You could start your search with looking into the University of California San Francisco diabetes research program.
Your proactive stance now will pay you many long term benefits. Good luck!
I was diagnosed at 53. Fortunately, I found info about low carb soon after diagnosis. Thrilled I did stumble upon this because I did badly following ADA dietary guidelines. I've found LC to be the best thing I can do. I don't subscribe to the eat-what-you-want-try-to-cover-with-insulin approach. Or, eat to the insulin.
No matter how you get there, the goal is as stable BG as possible. Using insulin protects your beta cells from spikes, of course.
There are syringes with half unit markings to take small doses. Are you on basal also? Some can just use basal at first.
hello julez, i am also honeymooning, going on ten months now. i am also interested in preserving my little beta cells and sometimes ask myself those same questions. which is better, eat more carbs and shoot up or low carb it and so inhibit endogenous insulin production so my immune system lays off my pancreas.
i tend to go by how strong my honeymoon is at the time. last month my needs were greater and my i:c ratio was 1:20, the worst its ever been. i shot up every meal cuz i could handle eating 20 carbs and because anything i ate seemed to make my bg go up. this month it seems to have gone back to 1:30. im not bolusing at all and eating low carb. my meal will have 20 carbs and i dont need to bolus, im back below 140 after two hours. im still going low in the middle of the day and have thought of lowering my basl, but, like you, i dont want to reduce my insulin more because my pancreas needs the support.
what i am doing right now because of the lows of the honeymooning (or too much basal)is testing a lot and snacking when im low, which is all morning and afternoon before lunch-we eat lunch here at like three or four o´clock. lots of low carb yogurt and glucose tabs.
i dont know if im doing the right thing but low carb seems to be a viable option at this point and not shooting up every meal makes me feel un-diabetic, which i like.
Hi Julez: Some new-onset honeymooning Type 1s just use basal insulin, some like Shawnmarie use only bolus. I know one TuD member, Lil MaMa, used only 3 units of Levemir per day during her honeymoon, and ate relatively low carb. I hope this helps!