Type 2 Diabetes in Remission?

Reading through some diabetes news updates this morning, I ran across a few articles talking about a new study. Some newly diagnosed diabetics in China had been given insulin, and a year later they were still 'in remission'. I've never heard that term applied to diabetes, and I was a bit confused. How much insulin were they taking? How often? And what did they mean by 'Remission'? Diabetes doesn't just go away for a while, as far as I know.

The entire article isn't available online - unless I shell out $30 bucks - but I gleaned what I could from the abstract on The Lancet's Website. Here's what they did:

They found 382 newly diagnosed diabetics who were not yet on medication. They had fasting levels between 7.0-16.7 mmol/L (126-301). They split them into three groups and gave one group oral meds (they don't specify which in the abstract), another group multiple daily injections, and a third "continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion" which I assume means some kind of pump.

They tracked how long it took patient to achieve "normoglycemia" - non diabetic responses to some tests, possibly the glucose tolerance tests, insulin, and proinsulin levels. Not surprisingly, insulin - especially the continuous infusion - brought glucose levels back to normal the fastest.

Once someone had maintained this for two weeks, they took them off the treatment they were on. All patients were switch to a diet-and-exercise management routine. There are no details on what diet they were on, but I would assume it as similar for all patients.

A year later, they went back and retested the patients. If a patient still showed normal responses on their tests, they said they were 'in remission'. 50% of those on the insulin treatments were 'in remission' as well as 27% of those on oral meds.

The tests they run showed that the beta cell function was "improved significantly after intensive interventions". However, the improvement declined in the patients who were treated with oral meds.

The bottom line here seems to be that for half of the patients, receiving insulin treatments restored some of their beta cell function for at least a year. That's pretty amazing to me, and it opens a lot of questions. Why did it work for some but not others? Was their any affect on their A1C? This is definitely a finding that needs more research.

I've linked the abstract above, but there's an article by someone who's read the whole article and not just the abstract available at Medical News Today.

Words to live by

A post today over at Diabetes Mine inspired my topic today. She wrote about mantras and best advice. It made me think about the phrases that bring inspiration to me.

A big one has always been This too shall pass. No matter what situation I'm in, no matter how scary or sad or painful, I can hold to that one. Sooner or later, whatever it is is going to get easier. It'll resolve itself, I'll learn to deal with it, I'll heal, or a new opportunity will appear. I've yet to be proven wrong with this one.

For diabetes, this means I remember on the days that I am frustrated and tired that there will be days where it breezes by. I hold hope for new treatments and devices to make life easier, and an eventual cure.

The second thing is less a phrase than a concept - that of a 'big picture' or 'fate'. It's hard to see the silver lining when you're in a bad patch. I try and remember that. I know it's going through a bad first marriage that makes me aware and committed to my second one. Getting diagnosed with and treated for pre diabetes helped me drop the weight I couldn't lose. Early detection is going to save me from a lot of potential complications.

I don't believe that life is meant to be free of challenges and low spots. It's what you learn and grow from. Of course, I'm not turning down any sunny days that come my way either.