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

Re:Low carb diet leads to “clinical remission” in 3 cases of... by DataDaoDe on Saturday June 20, 2020 @04:35PM (#23587064)

Here is the actual study [1]. This is n=3, so we are talking about highly anecdotal data. Nonetheless, I think this statement is misplaced:

> Low carb diets can help type 1 diabetics, but it's not a cure

Likely, as in most cases, the real picture is much more complex. It could be the case that LCHF diets can cure some percentage of individuals, can help some percentage and can be detrimental perhaps even fatal to some percentage. All of these could easily be simultaneously true.

Indeed, in case 1 it seems to have possibly "cured" the patient, though he could have also easily been a false positive or there could have been any number of other confounding factors. I quote from the study:

"He was able to stop insulin completely 15 days later (after diagnosis), and has not used insulin since March 2015." and "In the 4 years since his diagnosis, he has had no diabetes-related complications".

Here is patient #2's summary:

"He stopped insulin therapy at the beginning of the diet and has not used insulin since, except for one infectious episode." and " At 1 year after the diagnosis, he had no diabetes-related complications".

Also of note, both of these patients had started exercising 1-2 h a week, and 2 and 2-3 times a week respectively, before the diagnosis.

1. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S12623...

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Re:Low carb diet leads to “clinical remission” in 3 cases of... by cperciva on Saturday June 20, 2020 @04:51PM (#23587194)

It's well understood that insulin production in type 1 diabetics can continue at low levels for ~5 years post-diagnosis; the process of beta cell destruction is a gradual one and diagnosis typically occurs after 80-90% of beta cells function has been lost.

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Re:Low carb diet leads to “clinical remission” in 3 cases of... by HeadsUpHigh on Sunday June 21, 2020 @06:38AM (#23591216)

You need a small amount of insulin even during ketocis, otherwise you will go into ketoacidosis. Type 1 diabetics suffer from destruction of b islet cells and thus have reduced to zero insulin production. There are some reasons why you might have a small insulin production( e.g. acute pancreatitis destroying some but not all b islet cells) but those are pretty rare. For most people the destruction happens as a result of an auto-immune disorder and eventually they all get destroyed. So maybe there's a period between the diagnosis( usually around ~90% destroyed cells) and when all cells get destroyed that you can manage it with keto. But it won't last forever and thus is not a cure.

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