Reactive Hypoglycemia and Type 1?!

[Emmotha]

hi all

I've been thinking a lot lately (nope, it didn't hurt ).

I was diagnosed aged 29. But, as a child, I always thought one day I might be diabetic. Strange right? As no one in my family has it.

This was because I was always hungry and needing to eat. People used to comment on how frequently I ate (I wasn't fat or anything), and I used to think "if I was diabtic they couldn't moan about me needing food".

But now, the more I read about RH the more it all makes sense. I now regognise the symptoms as low blood sugar, and it especially used to happen at lunch times after having sugary cereals for breakfast!! I'd get weak, shaky, etc, exactly how I feel now when I'm hypo.

So my question is, I know it can lead to type 2, but can it lead to type1? My crazy theory is that if I had way too much insulin in my body, could that have triggered my antibodies as my body may have seen it as a threat?

It seems too coincidental not to be linked!!

 

[Lazybones]

Interesting question and YES, Reactive Hypo Glycaemia can lead to type 1 diabetes, due to the excessive demand that is placed upon the Beta cells within the pancreas after eating a meal that brings about the Reactive Hypoglycaemia in the firs instant. Being a type 2 diabetic often means that the Beta cells have been subjected to heavy Insulin production demands for some considerable time, and because of this they become weaken and loose their efficiency over a lengthy time period (often years)
For this reason, we type 2 are best advised to watch what we eat and drink, by ensuring that we avoid food/drinks that by themselves have HIGH Gi/GL ratings, unless they are combined with food/drinks of LOW Gi/GL ratings.
It is therefore better as a Type 2 to spread our intake of food/drink over the day so that the pancreas can cope with the Insulin demand placed upon it . Doing these things will help ensure that 'Burn Out' of the Beta cells is limited if not total avoided and in many cases it will over time help the Pancreas Beta cell repair and recover.

Hope this explains things a bit clearer - Best regards - Lazybones

 

[Lamont D]

I have not heard of this, but as RH is as diverse as diabetes, why not?

 

[phoenix]

Type one is not caused by beta cell 'burn out'
I know of one case where a child was born with congenital hyperinsulinism (a rare disease) but she wasn't diabetic then, it took a removal of her pancreas early in life to make her become diabetic (and she's actually not really T1 though she has to inject insulin).

No-one really knows what causes the autoimmune attack in susceptible people but the genes associated are mainly in the HLA system ie the system that controls your immune function .
The biggest part of your risk for getting type one was in this set of genes which control; not your insulin, but the way your body reacts to an 'intruder' It isn't heredity in the sense that everyone with these risk genes gets T1 (far from it; I believe myself to be very unlucky since I only have 1 copy of each of the susceptible HLA alleles and one non risk copy .)
Have a look at http://dtc.ucsf.edu/types-of-diabetes/type1/understanding-type-1-diabetes/autoimmunity/
One theory that makes a lot of sense (but probably isn't true in all cases) is that some viruses are very similar in structure to beta cells. You start killing off the virus and beta cells get killed off as peripheral damage. It might not destroy all your insulin producing cells in one with one 'attack' but several over time may cause a gradual loss (hence LADA))
Your insulin production is reduced; not increased.
If you have reduced insulin rather than too much then that could make you feel faint, hungry, a reaction to not having enough 'energy' getting into your cells
Eating sugary cereals for breakfast for anyone isn't good and will most probably result in a need to snack later, especially if you are a young active child . I don't think anyone except the cereal manufacturers disagree with that.

 

[phoenix]

I was thinking about this again and remembered that there was a very controversial hypothesis around when I was first diagnosed. This 'accelerator' hypothesis suggested that T1 and T2 were basically similar, both caused by weight gain and insulin resistance; the difference being rate of beta cell death (T1 being faster because of genetic susceptibility)
Obviously if this were the case then initial insulin resistance could, as in type 2, lead to raised insulin levels in order to combat the insulin resistance.
Diapedia discusses the theory and concludes that currently there is little or no support for it
.http://www.diapedia.org/type-1-diabetes-mellitus/accelerator-hypothesis