• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Question About Pancreas Function

J

jonnoras

Well-Known Member
Messages
96
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Hi - I'm not sure whether this is a silly question or not so please be gentle.
I am on a VLCHF diet (between 20 - 30g carbs a day). I am recently diagnosed T2 diabetic and not on any medication. My bloods are quite well controlled by my diet - rarely above 7 after food. My question is about pancreatic functioning.
Basically, if I don't eat many carbs (as in my diet) does my pancreas stop functioning as well as it might if I ate more carbs. I read somewhere that giving your pancreas a boot up the **** with say 50 - 60g carbs in one meal (say once a week) helps the pancreas to "remember" to produce insulin in sufficient quantities when the carb intake is higher than normal. I'm worried that my maintaining a low carb intake, my pancreas gets used to not producing a lot of insulin and eventually stops producing it altogether. Thus my VLCHF diet then has too many carbs for my pancreas to handle. I realise that you are probably having a good laugh at this question - but I just wanted to put my mind at ease. If anyone has any thoughts please will you share them.
Thanks
J
 
It is a complicated answer as although I have never heard of your panc needing a kick start, what you as a type 2 trying to do is get more insulin so you would think eating more carbs would make it work more but that is not the case, it is more like getting pancreas to work in a different manner, the pancreas helps digests fats and proteins, it doesn't stop unless you have an autoimmune problem or it is damaged.
It can under or over produce insulin. As a type3c I cannot eat a high fat or protein diet as my pancreas no longer produces the enzymes to break them down, I have to take replacement enzymes when I eat, plus insulin as I don't produce that either.
 
That "theory" sounds like utter BS to me. As a non-insulin dependant Type 2, your pancreas is producing insulin in pulses all the time - if it wasn't, you'd be in real trouble - it's the equivalent of the basal insulin that Type 1s need to take.

Response to carbs is also controlled by many other things besides the release of insulin from the pancreas - enzymes for example. Enzymes that assist with digesting carbs are down regulated if you don't eat carbs for a while - hence the really high figures people who eat low carb will get when they first eat extra carbs. If they continue to eat carbs, their bodies will start producing the enzymes required to digest the carbs. But, it's got nothing to do with "training" your pancreas to produce insulin.

There's another factor called "last meal effect" that governs first phase insulin release after eating. In principle I've always interpreted that to mean you'll get a more regular insulin response if you eat approx the same amount of carbs at each meal. I could be wrong though.
 
I have been eating VLCHF for over 4 months and at the 3 month mark I ad a c-peptide test done. I am producing more than twice as much insulin as normal. This is not uncommon in T2's but it is certainly not true for all. I believe there are many different reasons for T2 involving hormones, signalling, b-cell function, an other things. Some, like me, make to much insulin while being very insulin resistant, others do not make enough. Some, like me again, have a liver that does not seem to know when to stop dumping glucose, others do not have this issue. RH people spike too high then produce too much insulin too late and drop way too low. The only common denominator seems to be that restricting carbs at some level helps almost everyone. What that level is varies from person to person. I had Chinese takeout a couple weeks ago after months of low carb and spiked to 11 in an hour from a before meal reading of 5.8, a huge spike. At the 2 hour mark I was back at 5.8 so clearly my pancreas still knows what to do. I hope this helps.
 
I've not heard of that theory before. Although if you increase the insulin production you will wind up with beta cell damage. This is what I have. I no longer produce the insulin I need. But for me it's because I've had years of insulin resistance. I was put on oral meds after 7 years with no meds. During the next 5 years on meds I was on metformin along with other drugs that stimulated my pancreas to produce insulin. I think the oral meds also contributed to my pancreas failing at it's job.

I would think that if you stop the pancreas from producing too much insulin it will help preserve it and keep it working.
 
Back
Top