The raison d'etre of this website is to provide you with hard scientific information which may help you make informed decisions in your quest for health (so far I have blogged concise summaries of over 1,500 scientific studies and have had three books published).

My research is mainly focused on the effects of cholesterol, saturated fat and statin drugs on health. If you know anyone who is worried about their cholesterol levels and heart disease, or has been told to take statin drugs you could send them a link to this website, and to my statin or cholesterol or heart disease books.

David Evans

Independent Health Researcher

Wednesday 4 July 2012

Remission without insulin therapy on gluten-free diet in a 6-year old boy with type 1 diabetes

This study was published in the British Medical Journal 2012 Jun 21

Study title and authors:
Remission without insulin therapy on gluten-free diet in a 6-year old boy with type 1 diabetes mellitus.
Sildorf SM, Fredheim S, Svensson J, Buschard K.
Paediatric Unit, Copenhagen University Hospital, Herlev, Denmark.

This paper can be accessed at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22729336

This paper describes a 5-year and 10-month old boy was diagnosed with classical type 1 diabetes without celiac disease. Patients with type 1 diabetes typically require an insulin dosage of 0.5 to 1.0 unit per kg per day see here.

The boy was put on a gluten-free diet without insulin treatment.

On the gluten-free diet the boy achieved the following:
(a) His initial HbA1c was 7.8% and was stabilised at 5.8%-6.0% without insulin therapy. (A normal non-diabetic HbA1C is 3.5-5.5%. In diabetes about 6.5% is good).
(b) His fasting glucose was maintained at 4.0-5.0 mmol/l. (Diabetes is diagnosed on the criteria of fasting blood glucose level in excess of 7.7 mmol/l).
(c) He does not need insulin therapy.
(d) The gluten-free diet was safe and without side effects.

Sildorf found that the gluten-free diet prolonged remission in this patient with type 1 diabetes.

Links to other studies:
Gluten-containing foods increase the risk of type 1 diabetes in children
Gluten-free diet may be beneficial in the management of type 1 diabetes
Gluten free diet gives type 1 diabetics an improvement in quality of life, better blood sugar control, disappearance of diarrhea and an increase in the uptake of iron