For type 2 diabetics, eating a healthy diet, getting plenty of exercise, and maintaining a normal weight could help reverse its symptoms. But for those with type 1 diabetes, simply doing this won’t cure it–although it can make it easier to manage.
“Currently, there is no cure for diabetes,” says Gary Gilles, an About.com expert on Type 1 Diabetes. “The closest we come to a cure for type 1 diabetes is a pancreas transplant. But this is risky surgery and those who receive transplants must take potent drugs for the rest of their lives to keep their bodies from rejecting the new organ.”
However, researchers from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark say they may have discovered a way to prevent it–with a gluten-free diet.
The results were recently published in a study reported in the health journal Diabetes.
“Gut bacteria are known to play a role in the immune system’s development,” say researchers of the study. “And type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disorder in which the immune system attacks the cells of the pancreas that produce insulin.”
While most people know what causes, or even makes people more susceptible to type 2 diabetes, few people know about type 1 diabetes, commonly referred to as juvenile diabetes. Interestingly enough, type 1 diabetics are 10 times more likely to get celiac disease than those without the disease, according to recent research. In this study, they explored the possibility of a mother’s pre-natal diet on a child’s risk of type 1 diabetes–and it turns out they were on to something.
Feeding pregnant laboratory mice a gluten-free diet, they found that its offspring only developed type 1 diabetes 22 percent of the type. In comparison, mice who ate a regular diet during pregnancy gave birth to offspring that developed type 1 diabetes 50 percent of the time.
These are hardly small numbers. However, not all experts are convinced by these data.
“It’s not clear if the mice pups in the study that didn’t develop type 1 diabetes by the time they were 30 weeks old would end up developing type 1 diabetes later in life,” say researchers. “It could just be that the onset of the disease was delayed.”
In addition, researchers say if you don’t have celiac disease or gluten intolerance, it’s probably not a good idea to go gluten-free. Gluten-free diets are often hard to follow, especially during pregnancy–though researchers note that they aren’t necessarily unhealthy.
However, if you do experience gluten intolerance, avoid gluten while pregnant could keep your child protected from type 1 diabetes, at least theoretically.
“People who don’t fall into either of these groups would probably not be advised to cut gluten out of their diet in pregnancy, because it is a very difficult diet to follow,” says Cynthia Wu, a clinical dietitian at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. “Gluten-free diets are not known to be risky in pregnancy, as long as women replace gluten-containing foods with healthy substitutes, such as rice-based products and sweet potatoes.”
Readers: What else do you do to minimize your risk of diabetes?
Source:
Gluten Free Diet During Pregnancy Could Stop Type 1 Diabetes – HuffingtonPost.com
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