Huge diabetes breakthrough shocks scientists

Scientists may have just discovered a way to lower blood sugar levels in diabetics by putting them on a low-carb diet.

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A startling new discovery suggests that diabetics may be able to use a relatively straightforward trick to manage their blood sugar levels. By adopting a very low-carb diet, people with Type 1 diabetes can control blood sugar in a way researchers have not seen before, a huge discovery that could provide hope for people suffering with the disease.

The study, examined 300 people with Type 1 diabetes 130 of whom were children. Researchers found that those who ate a very low-carbohydrate and high-protein diet were able to have great control of their blood sugar levels despite taking lower doses of insulin.

They were even able to keep average blood sugar levels to 5.67 percent, below the normal level of 5.7 percent and far below the blood sugar threshold for diabetics, which is 6.5 percent. An extremely low-carb diet involves the consumption of less than 30 grams of carbohydrates per day, where as moderate consumption would be 130 to 225 grams per day. That means no sugar-sweetened foods or drinks, white bread, pasta, or starchy fruits and vegetables.

The full statement from a Hospital follows below.
Very-low-carbohydrate diets can improve blood sugar control in type 1 diabetes, with low rates of hypoglycemia and other complications, according to an online patient survey. The researchers, now call for controlled clinical trials of this approach.

The patients were drawn from a social network  community of people with type 1 diabetes committed to a very-low-carb diet as recommended by a book.

Of 493 people who took the survey, 316 provided enough information to be included in the analysis. For 138 of these participants, the researchers were able to confirm diabetes diagnosis, blood-sugar control measures, metabolic health measures and other outcomes with health care providers or through review of medical records. Forty-two percent of participants were children.

Participants reported an average daily carbohydrate intake of 36 grams, or about 5 percent of total calories (for comparison, the expert recommends about 45 percent of calories come from carbohydrates). Self-reported hemoglobin A1c values — the primary measure of blood-sugar control — averaged in the normal range, at 5.67 percent (the target is below 7 percent and prevailing levels average 8.2 percent).

Participants required lower-than-average doses of insulin (mean, 0.40 U/kg/day), and those for whom data were available had favorable measures of insulin sensitivity and cardio-metabolic health, such as low triglyceride levels and high HDL cholesterol levels.

Safety concerns have been raised about very-low-carb diets in type 1 diabetes, primarily that they increase the risk of hypoglycemia, or dangerous drops in blood sugar. However, in the study, rates of hospitalization for hypoglycemia (1 percent), diabetic ketoacidosis (2 percent) and other diabetes complications were lower than those generally reported for type 1 diabetes populations.

More than 80 percent of survey respondents were satisfied or very satisfied with their diabetes management. Yet about a quarter said they did not discuss the very-low-carb diet with their diabetes care providers, some citing concerns about being criticized or even being accused of child abuse.
The study authors note that severe carbohydrate restriction is actually a very old approach in type 1 diabetes.1 Before the discovery of insulin, it extended children’s lives, sometimes for years. Once insulin was introduced, carb restriction fell out of practice.

But the authors believe very-low-carbohydrate diets deserve further study in type 1 diabetes. Since this study was observational in nature and not controlled, they call for randomized clinical trials to rigorously test the diet’s safety and efficacy.

The authors emphasize that the results of this study, by themselves, do not justify a change in diabetes management. They strongly suggest that anyone with diabetes make dietary changes only with the supervision of a diabetes care provider.

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