Will Diabetes Go Away?
There is no cure for diabetes. Neither type 1 (juvenile onset or
insulin-requiring) diabetes or type 2 (adult-onset) diabetes ever goes away.
In type 1 diabetes, patients sometimes experience what physicians have
come to call a "honeymoon period" shortly after the disease is diagnosed.
During the "honeymoon period" diabetes may appear to go away for a period of
a few months to a year. The patient's insulin needs are minimal and some
patients may actually find they can maintain normal or near normal blood
glucose taking little or no insulin.
It would be a mistake to assume that the diabetes has gone away, however.
Basically, type 1 diabetes occurs when about 90 percent of the body's
insulin producing cells have been destroyed. At the time that type 1
diabetes is diagnosed, most patients still are producing some insulin. If
obvious symptoms of type 1 diabetes emerge when the patient has an illness,
virus or cold, for example, once the illness subsides the body's insulin
needs may decrease. At this point, the number of insulin producing cells
remaining may be enough ? for the moment ? to meet the person's insulin
needs again.
But the process that has destroyed 90 percent of the insulin producing
cells will ultimately destroy the remaining insulin-producing cells. And as
that destruction continues, the amount of injected insulin the patient needs
will increase ? and ultimately the patient will be totally dependent on
insulin injections.
Scientists now think that it is important for people with newly diagnosed
diabetes to continue taking some insulin by injection even during the
honeymoon period. Why? Because they have some scientific evidence to suggest
that doing so will help preserve the few remaining insulin producing cells
for a while longer.
Patients diagnosed with type 2 diabetes may discover that if they are
overweight at diagnosis and then lose weight and begin regular physical
activity, their blood glucose returns to normal. Does this mean diabetes has
disappeared? No. The development of type 2 diabetes is a gradual process,
too, in which the body becomes unable to produce enough insulin for its
needs and/or the body's cells become resistant to insulin's effects.
Gradually the patient goes from having "impaired glucose tolerance" ? a
decreased but still adequate ability to convert food into energy ? to having
"diabetes."
If the patient were to gain weight back or scale back on their physical
activity program, high blood glucose would return. If they were to overeat
at a meal, their blood glucose probably would continue to go higher than
someone without diabetes. Also, the decreased insulin production and/or
increased insulin resistance that led to the initial diabetes diagnosis will
gradually intensify over the years and during periods of stress. In time,
the patient who could maintain normal blood glucose with diet and exercise
alone may discover that he or she needs to add oral diabetes medications ?
or perhaps even insulin injections ? to keep blood glucose in a healthy
range.
The good news for a type 1 and type 2 patient is that if insulin,
medication, weight loss, physical activity and changes in eating result in
normal blood glucose, that means their diabetes is well controlled and their
risk of developing diabetes complications is much lower.
But it doesn't mean that their diabetes has gone away.
