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<blockquote data-quote="Chris24Main" data-source="post: 2758225" data-attributes="member: 585131"><p>It's all very complicated and confusing. Welcome to the club.</p><p>I was initially diagnosed as T1 as [USER=372717]@EllieM[/USER] says - and did a year of insulin before a C-peptide confirmed active insulin production. Just to nudge [USER=520626]@Melgar[/USER] 's characterisation - it may well be correct about the timing, but C-Peptide is not insulin, it's the left over part between two strands of proteins that the body discards after joining them together to make insulin - thus it's a pretty solid marker of the fact that your body is making insulin recently.</p><p></p><p>What it does not tell you, is what state your pancreas is in if the levels are low. This is the really tricky part.</p><p></p><p>There are various ways that the pancreas can go wrong. A sudden, catastrophic auto-immune attack, can characterise a "classic T1" - but over time, depending on various inputs - you can tend toward T2 presentations too.</p><p>On the other hand, "classic T2" is normally characterised by a long term build up of insulin resistance, leading to an ever higher demand for insulin which eventually overwhelms the pancreas' ability to keep up (actually, a tiny, tiny part of the end of the pancreas). But - in that classic T2 scenario, if the blood glucose remains high, that glucose is extremely toxic to the same part of the pancreas, and that can start to damage the body's ability to produce insulin.</p><p></p><p>Yet another mechanism involves a build up of fatty deposits in the liver and pancreas, leading to the same cells going into a state of hibernation until the person loses those deposits (fatty liver).</p><p></p><p>And even more complicated, sudden changes in inflammation that may result from infections (like COVID, but really anything that results in acute inflammation) can cause the pancreas to shut down insulin production for a while.</p><p></p><p>Stress can interplay with all of this, overbalancing the hormone levels in other ways leading to other types of diabetes.</p><p></p><p>So - there isn't usually a simple answer that you can trust.</p><p>More than that, even a C-peptide test only tells you what the pancreas is doing now, not whether it's inevitably on a path of ever reducing function, or whether it may recover.</p><p></p><p>The only thing I would say, is don't give up on your pancreas until you have definite proof that it isn't functioning. There isn't any study or data to point to one way or the other that would say "this means that this outcome is a definite" - </p><p></p><p>If you have been subject to a sudden auto immune cascade, there is very little you can do, but that (in my opinion) should not prevent you from trying, provided you feel you can. Some prefer to accept insulin dosing, and it may even be that this is preferable and less stressful. Only you can decide. </p><p></p><p>Personally, I was a little suspicious that some of the glucose readings I was seeing on my CGM simply could not make sense unless I was producing some insulin, and I put together a program of very low carb and intermittent fasting to rapidly reduce the fat in my liver to see what would happen. That worked amazingly well for me, but that was only appropriate in my very specific set of circumstances. I was also able to safely stop my meds during this time - </p><p></p><p>Don't know if any of that helps, but feel free to ask whatever...</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Chris24Main, post: 2758225, member: 585131"] It's all very complicated and confusing. Welcome to the club. I was initially diagnosed as T1 as [USER=372717]@EllieM[/USER] says - and did a year of insulin before a C-peptide confirmed active insulin production. Just to nudge [USER=520626]@Melgar[/USER] 's characterisation - it may well be correct about the timing, but C-Peptide is not insulin, it's the left over part between two strands of proteins that the body discards after joining them together to make insulin - thus it's a pretty solid marker of the fact that your body is making insulin recently. What it does not tell you, is what state your pancreas is in if the levels are low. This is the really tricky part. There are various ways that the pancreas can go wrong. A sudden, catastrophic auto-immune attack, can characterise a "classic T1" - but over time, depending on various inputs - you can tend toward T2 presentations too. On the other hand, "classic T2" is normally characterised by a long term build up of insulin resistance, leading to an ever higher demand for insulin which eventually overwhelms the pancreas' ability to keep up (actually, a tiny, tiny part of the end of the pancreas). But - in that classic T2 scenario, if the blood glucose remains high, that glucose is extremely toxic to the same part of the pancreas, and that can start to damage the body's ability to produce insulin. Yet another mechanism involves a build up of fatty deposits in the liver and pancreas, leading to the same cells going into a state of hibernation until the person loses those deposits (fatty liver). And even more complicated, sudden changes in inflammation that may result from infections (like COVID, but really anything that results in acute inflammation) can cause the pancreas to shut down insulin production for a while. Stress can interplay with all of this, overbalancing the hormone levels in other ways leading to other types of diabetes. So - there isn't usually a simple answer that you can trust. More than that, even a C-peptide test only tells you what the pancreas is doing now, not whether it's inevitably on a path of ever reducing function, or whether it may recover. The only thing I would say, is don't give up on your pancreas until you have definite proof that it isn't functioning. There isn't any study or data to point to one way or the other that would say "this means that this outcome is a definite" - If you have been subject to a sudden auto immune cascade, there is very little you can do, but that (in my opinion) should not prevent you from trying, provided you feel you can. Some prefer to accept insulin dosing, and it may even be that this is preferable and less stressful. Only you can decide. Personally, I was a little suspicious that some of the glucose readings I was seeing on my CGM simply could not make sense unless I was producing some insulin, and I put together a program of very low carb and intermittent fasting to rapidly reduce the fat in my liver to see what would happen. That worked amazingly well for me, but that was only appropriate in my very specific set of circumstances. I was also able to safely stop my meds during this time - Don't know if any of that helps, but feel free to ask whatever... [/QUOTE]
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