Type Ones get near normal blood sugars on very low carb diets

Adapted from Management of Type One Diabetes with a very low carbohydrate diet by Belinda S Lennerz et al. Pediatrics Volume 1 number 6, June 2018.

Exceptional glycaemic control of type one diabetes mellitus with low rates of adverse events was reported by a community of children and adults who consumed a very low carb diet. This study was done by recruiting patients via an online survey. Their medical records were then used to confirm their results.

Of the 316 respondents, just over a third were parents of diabetic children. The mean age of diagnosis was 16 years and the duration of diabetes was a mean of 11 years. The mean time of following a VLCD was just over 2 years. The mean daily carb intake was 36g. The mean HbA1c was 5.67%. Only 2% of the respondents reported diabetic hospitalisations. 4 admissions were for DKA and 2 for hypoglycaemia.

In the USA the average HbA1C for type one diabetics is 8.2%.  The ADA target to reduce complications is set at under 7.5% for children and under 7% for adults. Only 20% of children and 30% of adults reach these targets.

A major difficulty is achieving post meal blood sugar targets. The carbohydrate load has the greatest influence on this. A VLCD is regarded as between 20 and 50g of carb at each meal or between 5-10% of total meal calories from carbohydrate. Some practitioners worry about advising diabetics about VLCD because of concerns about DKA, hypos, lipid problems, nutrient deficiency, growth failure and sustainability.

The study was approved by the Boston Children’s Hospital.  The recruitment group were people who were following Dr Bernstein’s Diabetes Solution. They came from the USA, Canada, Europe and Australia. They were all confirmed as having type one diabetes from their medical records.

Symptomatic hypoglycaemia was reported by 69% of the participants but severe hypos were rare. Most people had 1-5 episodes of mild hypos a month.

Most people had the characteristic low triglycerides, high HDL, high total cholesterol and high LDL pattern.  The average trig/hdl ratio was 1:1 indicating excellent cardiometabolic health. BMI was also lower than population averages for age. The DCCT covered 1441 adolescents and young adults and the factors that showed the greatest effect on cardiovascular risk were: HbA1c, then trigs, then LDLc.

The commonly reported growth deceleration noted with type one diabetes is generally thought to be due to poor blood sugar control.  In this study group however the children’s height were modestly above averages for age and gender.

A few participants deliberately did not disclose their low carb diets to their health care providers due to concerns about being criticised, pressured to change behaviour or accused of child abuse. Although 49% of participants thought that their health care provider approved of VLCDs, a robust 82% of the health care providers said they did.

We don’t know how generalisable the findings in this study could be. This group may be particularly well motivated and may be pursuing other health related behaviours such as physical activity. None the less,  the level of glycaemic control and low rates of DKA and severe hypos revealed by this study break new ground in research into diabetes management for type one diabetes.