Diabetes blood test 'could mean end to daily insulin jabs

JohnEGreen said:

Not sure if this has been already posted but here goes anyway
Could be good news to some T1's

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-44144678

Click to expand...

Reading about Sophie's case is impressive, so there could be hope for many out there
Thank you for posting

I wish there were more details in the article to show what was particular about the ‘genetic’ version of Sophie’s T1 diagnosis.

There’s also this. I’ve already posted it on another thread. I don’t know if the group in Edinburgh used the results of this research. The article’s much more informative than the BBC.

https://www.med.wisc.edu/news-and-events/2013/july/gene-therapy-for-type-1-diabetes/

I think the message is that just because doctors assumed that someone has type1 and they have been on inslin for a long time it does not mean their body is making no inslin.

A lot of the newer drugs developed for type2 can help someone's body increase inslin production if they have any living beta cells, we also know that low carb diets reduce how much inslin is needed. (The newer drugs work in ways that don't lead to a risk of hypos.)

The test they used is very cheap (if testing many people and therefore a lab robot is used), has been in use for years and most of us know about it (c peptride). So way is it not done for everyone with diabetes regardless of what the records say about the type along with a fasting inslin test once a year?

Clearly deviding people between two boxes (type1 and type2) is no longer good enough.......

There's not even close to enough information in the article to make any kind of educated guess about how it could mean the end for it, which is to be expected from a BBC(or any other regular newspaper/site) article really. All it says is that a subset of diabetics with an unnamed genetic type of diabetes could get by using an unnamed tablet rather than an unnamed type of insulin injection.

I'd like this test. My dad is t1, diagnosed aged 28 and didn't take insulin for 6 years. Originally diagnosed t2.
I was diagnosed aged 11 and did start taking insulin after a few months but I still only take about 16u a day - 25 years later - and I only take 0.2u per 10g carbs.

The chance of me getting this test it probably nil though. No one will know anything about it will they?!

The test is common, most NHS labs can do it, but few doctors know what to do with the results......

Who would I ask for it? The GP?

Maybe I am confused but I thought this was done on all T1's as part of diagnosis blood test? When my doctor suspected I was a t1 she did fasting blood glucose (10.3), HbA1c (6.7), antibodies (yes), insulin, c-peptide and some other stuff (just general things, not diabetes related).

I think it is also about doing the test after a few years, to see if someone beta cell have recovered at all.