Note that it is similarly without any substantive details. Not to be a naysayer, buuuutttt... knowing a fair amount about type 1 diabetes, I can suggest any number of possible explanations that are far short of "miracle." The most obvious one is that he had over-treated type 2 diabetes and increased physical activity is leading to an increase in insulin sensitivity that looks like a miraculous cure. Alternatively, especially given the late age of diagnosis, he might have Latent Autoimmune Diabetes of Adults (LADA), which is kind of like really slowly developing type 1 diabetes. The body naturally goes through ebbs and flows in relative efficiency and autoimmunity, so if he still had some functioning beta cells, a temporary period of reduced autoimmunity could allow those cells to resurge and produce enough insulin to support his body without the addition of exogenous insulin. However, that's unlikely to last if that's the case.
Again, not to pooh-pooh all theoretically good news, but... I see lots of miracle cures for diabetes in headlines, and none on the pharmacy shelves.
I'm a programmer and I've had a type 1 diabetes for the last 21 years. It is one of the most complex things in my life to take care of
when all of the insulin therapies don't really work that well and I don't wake up to the nightly hypos. Luckily I'm in the German insurance system and getting an insulin pump first and later a CGM. Already I'm using an NFC chip in my arm giving results to my phone and from there to InfluxDB and Grafana. Later with a proper CGM I also get automatic alarms which wake me and my partner if the sugar gets to low.
There are great open source systems for us technical people, but the tech is very expensive without an insurance and requires you to solder an extra device to get the values to your phone. At least with an NFC device you can wrap a smartwatch over it to get the readings automatically to your phone, rooted of course.
> Luckily I'm in the German insurance system... I'm using an NFC chip in my arm giving results to my phone
Poor you. If you were lucky enough to use the greatest health care system in the world, USA, you could also get the Freestyle Libre CGM but would be protected from the NFC data. In the US those data can only be read by a physician; patients do not have access to the readers. Oh I notice the disposable pucks that go on the arm cost more here on Blue Shield than I would have been paying with DKV in Germany.
(Fortunately you can buy the readers OTC in France if you have a friend with a French address and can speak French. Even in Germany you can only the hardware by prescription).
> Already I'm using an NFC chip in my arm giving results to my phone and from there to InfluxDB and Grafana. Later with a proper CGM I also get automatic alarms which wake me and my partner if the sugar gets to low.
Very cool! I've recently become friends with a type 1 diabetic and have been learning a lot about it myself. It really is an incredibly intrusive thing that involves constant supervision even with automatic pumps, constantly switching spots to place the needle that much stay in him constantly. He's actually getting a service dog in a month that's trained to wake/warn him if his blood sugar levels get too low. Have you open sourced your solution?
4 years ago I got diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in my early forties. The hospital staff showed me how to manage my glucose with long acting and fast acting insuline.
As a programmer I'm good with numbers so everything was pretty much under control but I started noticing that I needed less and less insuline up to the point that I needed no insuline at all. This was about a year ago. At that same time I had some new physical health problems and it turned out I had celiac disease as well. Bummer :(
One side-effect of 'untreated' celiac is that carbohydrates are less well converted to glucose and so my glucose levels stayed normal without using insuline. Unfortunately it meant I was not cured from type 1 diabetes.
Now that I am on a gluten free diet my insuline usage is back to normal and I stopped farting as a bonus :)
Generally people are diagnosed with Type 1 at a very young age, since it is caused by your own immune system destroying beta cells in the pancreas, which if untreated results in eventual death.
Type 2 is more often associated with age and diet. It is the most common type in particular at later ages, but some people get it younger due to genetic predisposition.
Quote: "Mr Darkes says that doctors are now 80 per cent convinced he is cured of the condition, which has never before been reversed."
I suspect (and it can't be more than a suspicion) that many of those with diabetes diagnoses never take the risk of reevaluating their physical condition, but passively continue their medication -- and that seems wise and prudent.
Maybe a carefully designed study, an animal study at first, could reveal that what happened to this individual is on the roster of possibilities, that some people have the ability to reactivate their pancreases in the right circumstances.
It's already well-established that physically active people have a lower risk for diabetes, but once the condition is diagnosed, most people start an insulin regimen that never ends. This case suggests that a person's pancreas can be reactivated -- but for how many? And is the change permanent? These are unanswered questions.
Given the ongoing cost and incredible amount of hassle involved in managing insulin for diabetics, I would think many would jump at the opportunity to discontinue medicating multiple times a day, and would go to pretty great lengths to do so.
But, the risk of "testing" insulin response yourself would be pretty high, too, so I would hope folks would do so under doctor supervision. Hopefully, this will make that kind of experimentation become more common. If there's something to it, a whole lot of people could see a tremendous improvement in their quality of life.
Sadly this article doesn't say if he can eat cakes or cookies without dangerously high blood sugars. This test could say quite definitively if he is cured or not.
Usually term "reversed" is used in context of Type 2 diabetes, meaning that patient can have normal range blood sugar without any medications, but patients still cannot eat cookies/cakes without blood sugar spiking to dangerous levels.
tldr: Unsatisfyingly short article about someone no longer having type 1 diabetes -- without any even possible explanation as to why. They only mention long-distance running as a remote possibility.
The article is a bit short on medical details. It sounds like he was diagnosed Type 1 diabetes and then after time they think his pancreas regrew the beta cells needed in a functioning pancreas
This seems... unlikely? Is it possible he had some other, rarer autoimmune condition that presented diabetes-like symptoms, and that resulted in a false diagnosis?
[+] [-] karmel|9 years ago|reply
Note that it is similarly without any substantive details. Not to be a naysayer, buuuutttt... knowing a fair amount about type 1 diabetes, I can suggest any number of possible explanations that are far short of "miracle." The most obvious one is that he had over-treated type 2 diabetes and increased physical activity is leading to an increase in insulin sensitivity that looks like a miraculous cure. Alternatively, especially given the late age of diagnosis, he might have Latent Autoimmune Diabetes of Adults (LADA), which is kind of like really slowly developing type 1 diabetes. The body naturally goes through ebbs and flows in relative efficiency and autoimmunity, so if he still had some functioning beta cells, a temporary period of reduced autoimmunity could allow those cells to resurge and produce enough insulin to support his body without the addition of exogenous insulin. However, that's unlikely to last if that's the case.
Again, not to pooh-pooh all theoretically good news, but... I see lots of miracle cures for diabetes in headlines, and none on the pharmacy shelves.
[+] [-] delhanty|9 years ago|reply
But I'm in the U.S. right now: does anyone have any recommendations for a basic CGM setup that I could get off Amazon?
[+] [-] pimeys|9 years ago|reply
There are great open source systems for us technical people, but the tech is very expensive without an insurance and requires you to solder an extra device to get the values to your phone. At least with an NFC device you can wrap a smartwatch over it to get the readings automatically to your phone, rooted of course.
[+] [-] gumby|9 years ago|reply
Poor you. If you were lucky enough to use the greatest health care system in the world, USA, you could also get the Freestyle Libre CGM but would be protected from the NFC data. In the US those data can only be read by a physician; patients do not have access to the readers. Oh I notice the disposable pucks that go on the arm cost more here on Blue Shield than I would have been paying with DKV in Germany.
(Fortunately you can buy the readers OTC in France if you have a friend with a French address and can speak French. Even in Germany you can only the hardware by prescription).
[+] [-] taternuts|9 years ago|reply
Very cool! I've recently become friends with a type 1 diabetic and have been learning a lot about it myself. It really is an incredibly intrusive thing that involves constant supervision even with automatic pumps, constantly switching spots to place the needle that much stay in him constantly. He's actually getting a service dog in a month that's trained to wake/warn him if his blood sugar levels get too low. Have you open sourced your solution?
[+] [-] Nilef|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bluemax|9 years ago|reply
As a programmer I'm good with numbers so everything was pretty much under control but I started noticing that I needed less and less insuline up to the point that I needed no insuline at all. This was about a year ago. At that same time I had some new physical health problems and it turned out I had celiac disease as well. Bummer :(
One side-effect of 'untreated' celiac is that carbohydrates are less well converted to glucose and so my glucose levels stayed normal without using insuline. Unfortunately it meant I was not cured from type 1 diabetes.
Now that I am on a gluten free diet my insuline usage is back to normal and I stopped farting as a bonus :)
[+] [-] YooLi|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] UnoriginalGuy|9 years ago|reply
Generally people are diagnosed with Type 1 at a very young age, since it is caused by your own immune system destroying beta cells in the pancreas, which if untreated results in eventual death.
Type 2 is more often associated with age and diet. It is the most common type in particular at later ages, but some people get it younger due to genetic predisposition.
[+] [-] jwdunne|9 years ago|reply
It appears, based on this, that carbohydrates drove your diabetes? I wonder if the problem is with refined carbohydrates or with gluten specifically?
Do you eat sugar, chocolate, etc?
[+] [-] lutusp|9 years ago|reply
I suspect (and it can't be more than a suspicion) that many of those with diabetes diagnoses never take the risk of reevaluating their physical condition, but passively continue their medication -- and that seems wise and prudent.
Maybe a carefully designed study, an animal study at first, could reveal that what happened to this individual is on the roster of possibilities, that some people have the ability to reactivate their pancreases in the right circumstances.
It's already well-established that physically active people have a lower risk for diabetes, but once the condition is diagnosed, most people start an insulin regimen that never ends. This case suggests that a person's pancreas can be reactivated -- but for how many? And is the change permanent? These are unanswered questions.
[+] [-] SwellJoe|9 years ago|reply
But, the risk of "testing" insulin response yourself would be pretty high, too, so I would hope folks would do so under doctor supervision. Hopefully, this will make that kind of experimentation become more common. If there's something to it, a whole lot of people could see a tremendous improvement in their quality of life.
[+] [-] alexee|9 years ago|reply
Usually term "reversed" is used in context of Type 2 diabetes, meaning that patient can have normal range blood sugar without any medications, but patients still cannot eat cookies/cakes without blood sugar spiking to dangerous levels.
[+] [-] dude01|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] brudgers|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bleair|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rjmalagon|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] known|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zaroth|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] amelius|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] stupidcar|9 years ago|reply