Little Brother, 12 Diagnosed With Type 1 Diabetes

[Lanthir]

This week my little brother who is 12, wound up in the ICU and was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. I have read Sugar Issues and Glucose and Sucrose for Diabetes. There is a paragraph that says that the basic anti-aging diet would be the best place to start with healing and possibly reversing. Also, brewer's yeast has had success in reversal of Type 1.

I guess I just wanted to get some opinions and see if anyone had any success in improving or reversing with someone that is this young. It is a bit daunting with someone this age, especially with such a restricted array of foods. He is also a bit on the picky side anyway.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[tara]

I'm sorry that your brother is dealing with this. Good that he has you with him.

I have no expertise on diabetes, though I certainly know people affected by it, and have read articles on Peat's website.
I have only heard of brewers' yeast slowing or reversing Type 2 diabetes.
I get the impression that Type 1 is much more of a challenge. I don't know how much of a fundamental difference there is between Type 1 and Type 2 - I seem to remember coming across a few articles suggesting there were more similarities than previously assumed.

I would be wondering and asking what they are going by for the diagnoses - high blood glucose alone, or testing insulin levels, or some method of assessing physical damage to pancreas (don't know if this last is possible), or other measurements - anti-bodies, or chemicals involved in damage to pancreatic beta cells? Any clues you can get about possible causes/triggers for him may be useful.

Did he lose consciousness with high blood sugar, or did something else get him into ICU? Are you aware of any events leading up to it that might have been involved?
What are the medical experts recommending for him? Are they suggesting a 'restricted array of foods'?
Is he currently being given supplementary insulin injections? If so, low blood sugar becomes a risk, too.
Are they saying he is producing no insulin, or not enough for current demands?

If I were you, I think one of the things I would do would be to further investigate any links Peat has appended to his articles - and anywhere else - about fructose in treatment of diabetes, and see if you can find any for Type 1 specifically, to see whether there might be anything to gain from finding either pure fructose powder or very high fructose - low glucose foods (eg some fruits, some honey's can be ~70:30). If I've understood it right, fructose does not require insulin to enter cells or to be used for energy.
B vitamins seem to be very important for blood sugar regulation and energy production. Worth finding out if anyone has had success with recovering or improving type1 with brewers yeast.
Minerals could also be very relevant - eg potassium helps metabolise sugar well.
Whatever else, I imagine trying to minimise PUFAs would continue to be important - maybe even more so.

I would expect that if he is being encouraged to eat carbohydrates (and he may not be), it would be good if they were more fruits etc than starchy foods, esp. grains. This may conflict with dietitian's advice - I don't know what the usual take on this is where you are.
I have the impression, though I'm not sure if it is well supported, that once you start using supplementary insulin, it can cause a number of issues of its own, and complicate recovery, if recovery is possible at all. I also believe that there are times when it may be necessary and life saving, in the short or long-term.

People seem to have various strategies for living with diabetes. Some choose relatively high carb and use quite a bit of supplementary insulin. Some give up on being able to use carbs and eat very high fat. I would expect the later to have some serious down sides long term, esp for a growing boy.

Hopefully someone here will have more experience with Type 1.

Take care.

 

[LucyL]

Has he been ill? Often type 1 diabetes is diagnosed post-illness, i think the theory is that the virus can destroy the pancreatic cells. My kids pediatrician pushes vaccination because she was diagnosed with type 1 following a routine childhood illness. Peat on the other hand, says the pancreas can recover if given a chance. So I definitely support taras' recommend to read all of Peats writings on diabetes, and the studies he links to. Possibly if the pancreas is given an chance to recover it might, but this is not widely accepted medical practice I think. I think they just start them on insulin and then they are type 1 for life. Something to consider.

The other thing you have to think of, of course is how your parents and your brother feel about experimentation and bucking current medical practice. Don't despair if they wish to follow standard advice, the best thing to work for would be to simply minimize the amount of insulin (or other treatment) he would ever require.

 

[Lanthir]

Thank you ladies, I am currently reading everything that I can about Type 1 and trying to educate myself as much as possible to pass it on to my father and his mother.

 

[Peatri Dish]

Good luck with your journey.
I had a brother with juvenile onset diabetes. I wish I found Dr Peat's work sooner.
Sounds like you're on the right track.
Keep us posted!

 

[BingDing]

Just a bump, if Lanthir is still connected. We would like to hear of any results, etc. And of course offer what encouragement we can.

 

[burtlancast]

“Diabetes” is often the diagnosis, when excess cortisol is the problem. The hormones have traditionally not been measured before diagnosing diabetes and prescribing insulin or other chemical to lower the blood sugar. Some of the worst effects of “diabetes,” including retinal damage, are caused or exacerbated by insulin itself.


Glucagon, cortisol, adrenalin, growth hormone and thyroid tend to increase the blood sugar, but it is common to interpret hyperglycemia as "diabetes," without measuring any of these factors. Even when "insulin dependent diabetes" is diagnosed, it isn't customary to measure the insulin to see whether it is actually deficient, before writing a prescription for insulin. People resign themselves to a lifetime of insulin injections, without knowing why their blood sugar is high.

http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/glycemia.shtml

Vit E, niacinamide, coconut oil are highly recommended in this situation.

 

[Type1D]

Anyone have any new information on healing type 1?Has anyone have had success with brewer yeast and increasing fruit? Any tips?

 

[Kartoffel]

This week my little brother who is 12, wound up in the ICU and was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. I have read Sugar Issues and Glucose and Sucrose for Diabetes. There is a paragraph that says that the basic anti-aging diet would be the best place to start with healing and possibly reversing. Also, brewer's yeast has had success in reversal of Type 1.

I guess I just wanted to get some opinions and see if anyone had any success in improving or reversing with someone that is this young. It is a bit daunting with someone this age, especially with such a restricted array of foods. He is also a bit on the picky side anyway.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Do you know how exactely the diagnosis was made? Describe his health up until now.