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Early Insulin May Help Diabetics Avoid It Later

Posted: Friday, May 14, 2004

In type 2 diabetes, insulin production continues (unlike the situation in type 1 diabetes) but the body's response to the hormone is blunted. Standard drug treatment is aimed at increasing sensitivity to insulin, but in some cases extra insulin becomes necessary on an ongoing basis to ensure that glucose is processed properly.

The new findings, which appear in the medical journal Diabetes Care, are based on a study of 16 patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes who were treated with intensive insulin therapy for 2 to 3 weeks. All of the subjects had high blood sugar levels when the study began.

This short-term therapy produced a marked improvement in sugar levels, lead author Dr. Edmond A. Ryan and colleagues, from the University of Alberta in Edmonton, note. Moreover, this improvement was still present one year later.

At 1-year follow-up, only one patient required insulin, while the rest were able to control their sugar levels with diet or pills. Predictors of good control with diet alone included requiring less insulin during the initial treatment phase, and having a lower sugar level at the end of that phase.

"The ease with which (normal sugar levels are) achieved on insulin may predict those patients who can later succeed in controlling glucose levels with attention to diet," the researchers conclude. "However, the numbers in this study were small, and the results need confirmation with larger studies before being considered as a routine clinical option."

Source: Diabetes In Control.com