Wellness

[cherry]

A high-tech plaster that emits a healing gas could slash the time it takes for wounds to mend.

The dressing gradually releases nitric oxide, which in turn makes the blood vessels dilate, improving blood flow to the area. This increases the amount of oxygen-rich blood reaching the wound, boosting the growth of healthy tissue.

The gas-releasing plaster, called EDX110, has already been trialled in the UK on patients with severe diabetic foot ulcers.

Results showed that it completely healed more ulcers than a standard dressing did. Scientists behind the new invention hope it will help to reduce the number of diabetes-related foot amputations currently performed in the UK — which average around 130 a week.

At least one diabetes patient in ten develops poor circulation to the legs and feet because high levels of sugar in the blood thicken the walls of capillaries, tiny blood vessels in the lower leg, reducing blood flow.

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The gas-releasing plaster, called EDX110, has already been trialled in the UK on patients with severe diabetic foot ulcers (file photo)

Even the slightest cut can then develop into an open wound because, as blood circulation slows, the damaged skin is starved of the oxygen-rich blood and immune cells it needs to mend itself.

Up to 40 per cent of diabetic ulcers take three months to mend, and in around 14 per cent of cases wounds are still present after a year. Most are treated with dressings that absorb pus and debris from the ulcer while protecting it against infection.

Bandages impregnated with antibiotic medicine are sometimes used if there are signs of an infection, and special insoles can also be worn while walking to ease pressure on the ulcers on the sole of the foot.

The gas-based plaster, developed by London-based firm Edixomed, could revolutionise treatment.

Nitric oxide not only boosts blood flow, it can also kill off bacteria in a wound. However, in badly damaged tissue, the body’s natural gas-emitting mechanism fails. The new dressing could overcome this. Doctors first cover the wound with a gauze that contains the chemical sodium nitrite, then a sheet of special gel is placed on top.

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Professor Steve Bain, from the Diabetes Research Unit at Swansea University, said the gas plaster had the potential to radically improve healing in many patients with foot ulcers (file photo)

The gel is made from water and carboxylic acid, which occurs naturally in fats and citrus fruits. When this acid comes into contact with the sodium nitrite, it triggers a chemical reaction that produces nitric oxide.

The plaster is designed to give a 20-minute ‘burst’ of high levels of nitric oxide to kick-start healing, followed by a sustained release of smaller amounts of gas over the following 24 to 48 hours, at which point it is swapped for a new one.

In a trial involving 135 diabetic patients with moderate to severe foot ulcers, each one received standard care, involving debridement (removal of dead tissue from the wound), plus antibiotics and insoles.

Half the patients were given the gas-emitting dressing, while the other half had a normal dressing.

The results, reported in the journal Wound Repair and Regeneration, showed that over a 12-week period, nearly half the ulcers healed completely with the gas plaster — compared with less than a third of those treated with conventional therapy.

In those that did not heal altogether, the plaster reduced the ulcer size by 89 per cent — nearly twice that seen with existing treatment.

The high-tech plasters are expected to become available in the UK next year and are likely to cost less than £30 each.

Professor Steve Bain, from the Diabetes Research Unit at Swansea University, said the gas plaster had the potential to radically improve healing in many patients with foot ulcers.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-5665173/New-plaster-uses-nitric-oxide-GAS-heal-wounds-fast...
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[cherry]

3 New Diabetes Products on the Market

By Benjamin Hubbert

Photography by Terry Doran; styled by Meghan Moorlach

Dress Up Your Device

Tired of wearing a plain insulin pump or continuous glucose monitor (CGM) sensor? Emily Imblum—who has type 1 diabetes—was, too. Seven years ago, she and her boyfriend (now husband), Scott, created Pump Peelz (above), a collection of adhesive covers that add vibrant color to pumps, meters, CGMs, and lancing devices. Each Peelz is precut to fit a dozen or so specific devices. They’re made of medical tape or eco-friendly, PVC-free vinyl and are designed to peel away from your device so you can change designs without any mess. There are 14 to 20 patterns to choose from, with new designs each season. Don’t see one you like? Create your own—an online tool makes that easy to do—and have it shipped to your door within a week. Peelz go for $2 to $10 each.

Rhymes With Precise

Good news for people with type 2 diabetes: AstraZeneca recently released Bydureon BCise, an easier-to-use formulation of the long-acting GLP-1 receptor agonist Bydureon. Like its older sibling, Bydureon BCise is a once-weekly injection for blood glucose management for people with type 2 diabetes. But this new version of Bydureon uses a much simpler resuspension process before injecting—shake for 15 seconds, and it’s ready to use—and comes in a single-dose “auto-injection” device that hides the needle from view. Bydureon BCise is available by prescription only.

Beginner’s Guide

If you don’t know where to start with type 2 diabetes, pick up Managing Type 2 Diabetes for Dummies, published by the American Diabetes Association in partnership with John Wiley & Sons, for a crash course in diabetes management. Find out whom to add to your diabetes care team, why exercise helps you manage your diabetes, and how to get started on a Mediterranean or low-carb meal plan. The book is aimed at people with diabetes, along with their loved ones and caregivers. The book ($19.99), as well as its companions Diabetes & Keeping Fit for Dummies and Quick Diabetic Recipes for Dummies ($22.99 each), is available at wherever books and e-books are sold.

[cherry]

New treatment options currently being trialed could change the way the disease is treated long term.

Novo Nordisk's oral semaglutide could increase patient compliance and help delay the need for direct insulin treatment.

Opko's oxyntomodulin candidate is the leader in a new class of dual GLP-1 and glucagon receptor agonists.

Oramed just started a Phase 2 trial on an oral insulin candidate.

Advances in diabetes treatments are usually incremental improvements in established drug classes. Very rarely does a new treatment class arise with the potential to change the nature of the management of the disease. While 2018 probably won't fundamentally change the way diabetes is treated overnight, there are a number of trials and potential approvals that could pave the way for much more efficient diabetes management come the next decade.

Here are three developments to keep an eye on that have the potential to begin to transform diabetes management over the long term.

Oral Semaglutide

Novo Nordisk's (NYSE:NVO) pioneering oral semaglutide GLP-1 agonist would be the first of its kind if it is approved. It's not a new drug class, but a new way of administering it. The name of the Phase III trial recently completed is, in fact, PIONEER-1. Novo plans a regulatory submission some time in 2019. There are no other oral GLP-1 agonists on the market, and Novo's is the first to successfully complete a Phase III trial.

Before we get into the data, here's how it could eventually change the way diabetes is treated. Success in treating diabetes is difficult not because we don't have the medications, but because of compliance issues. Compliance is not easy with multiple daily injections. They are taboo for many people and uncomfortable besides. This could be changed by oral semaglutide.

Patients typically go on GLP-1 agonists like semaglutide before they resort to direct insulin shots. GLP-1 stimulates native production of insulin in a glucose-dependent manner. If GLP-1 drugs are no longer effective enough, then patients move to insulin. But, if a higher rate of compliance can be achieved with an oral formulation of GLP-1 instead of injections, then diabetes can plausibly be controlled better for a longer time period before resorting to insulin shots. An oral GLP-1 analogue would go a long way towards accomplishing this, and could help significantly improve long term survival.

[cherry]

A diabetes nurse who has seen "amazing results" from encouraging her patients to follow a low carb diet has been nominated for a top health award.

Catherine Cassell, who works at the Preston Grove Medical Centre in Somerset, has been shortlisted in the Patient's Choice category for this year's RCNi Nurse Awards after being nominated by patients Nicola Hayes and Stephen Pacey.

Catherine decided to start deploying low carb advice to her patients after reading Michael Mosley's book The 8 Week Blood Sugar Diet, which she said felt like a "huge penny had dropped".

Speaking to The Diabetes Times, Catherine said: "I am so proud to be nominated for this very special award. My diabetes care is person-centred as each individual has different needs. I practice lifestyle medicine such as focusing on dietary changes, improved sleep, exercise and stress management.

"I have had the most amazing results with patients eating low carb diets. Patients have reversed prediabetes and patients with type 2 diabetes have gone into remission."

A spokesperson for the awards said that Catherine's patients, Nicola and Stephen, report that: "Catherine's knowledge, enthusiasm and 'dogged determination' have changed their lives and inspired many patients."

Diabetes.co.uk are big advocates of a low carb diet in helping people with diabetes achieve normalised blood sugar levels, lose weight and improve their overall health. We created the award-winning Low Carb Program in 2015 and stories such as Catherine's are affirming that a low carb diet is beginning to have major benefits for patients across the UK.

Catherine added: "One chap has lost over eight stone in 11 months. I have never seen so many patients improve their HbA1c levels lose weight so much. Also their lipids improve, fatty livers, GI symptoms, mood, energy; just so many things! It has been wonderful to take people off medications, stop insulin or not have to start meds in the first place."

[cherry]

Get the facts about diabetes and learn how you can stop diabetes myths and misconceptions.

Myth: If you are overweight or obese, you will eventually develop type 2 diabetes.

Fact: Being overweight is a risk factor for developing this disease, but other risk factors such as family history, ethnicity and age also play a role. Unfortunately, too many people disregard the other risk factors for diabetes and think that weight is the only risk factor for type 2 diabetes. Most overweight people never develop type 2 diabetes, and many people with type 2 diabetes are at a normal weight or only moderately overweight.

Myth: Eating too much sugar causes diabetes.

Fact: The answer is not so simple. Type 1 diabetes is caused by genetics and unknown factors that trigger the onset of the disease; type 2 diabetes is caused by genetics and lifestyle factors.

Being overweight does increase your risk for developing type 2 diabetes, and a diet high in calories from any source contributes to weight gain. Research has shown that drinking sugary drinks is linked to type 2 diabetes.

The American Diabetes Association recommends that people should avoid intake of sugar-sweetened beverages to help prevent diabetes. Sugar-sweetened beverages include beverages like:

• Regular soda
• Fruit punch
• Fruit drinks
• Energy drinks
• Sports drinks
• Sweet tea
• Other sugary drinks

These will raise blood glucose and can provide several hundred calories in just one serving!

See for yourself:

• Just one 12-ounce can of regular soda has about 150 calories and 40 grams of carbohydrate. This is the same amount of carbohydrate in 10 teaspoons of sugar!
• One cup of fruit punch and other sugary fruit drinks have about 100 calories (or more) and 30 grams of carbohydrate.

Myth: Diabetes is not that serious of a disease.

Fact: Diabetes causes more deaths a year than breast cancer and AIDS combined. Having diabetes nearly doubles your chance of having a heart attack. The good news is that good diabetes control can reduce your risks for diabetes complications.

Myth: People with diabetes should eat special diabetic foods.

Fact: A healthy meal plan for people with diabetes is generally the same as a healthy eating for anyone – low in saturated and trans fat, moderate in salt and sugar, with meals based on lean protein, non-starchy vegetables, whole grains, healthy fats and fruit. "Diabetic" foods generally offer no special benefit. Most of them still raise blood glucose levels, are usually more expensive and can also have a laxative effect if they contain sugar alcohols.

Myth: If you have diabetes, you should only eat small amounts of starchy foods, such as bread, potatoes and pasta.

Fact: Starchy foods can be part of a healthy meal plan, but portion size is key. Whole grain breads, cereals, pasta, rice and starchy vegetables like potatoes, yams, peas and corn can be included in your meals and snacks. In addition to these starchy foods, fruits, beans, milk, yogurt, and sweets are also sources of carbohydrate that count in your meal plan.

Wondering how much carbohydrate you can have? The amount of carbohydrate you need will vary based on many factors. You and your health care team can figure out the right amount for you. Once you know how much carb to eat at a meal, choose your food and the portion size to match.

Myth: People with diabetes can't eat sweets or chocolate.

Fact: If eaten as part of a healthy meal plan, or combined with exercise, sweets and desserts can be eaten by people with diabetes. They are no more "off limits" to people with diabetes than they are to people without diabetes. The key to sweets is to have a very small portion and save them for special occasions so you focus your meal on more healthful foods.

Myth: You can catch diabetes from someone else.

Fact: No. Although we don't know exactly why some people develop diabetes, we know diabetes is not contagious. It can't be caught like a cold or flu. There seems to be some genetic link in diabetes, particularly type 2 diabetes. Lifestyle factors also play a part.

Myth: People with diabetes are more likely to get colds and other illnesses.

Fact: You are no more likely to get a cold or another illness if you have diabetes. However, people with diabetes are advised to get flu shots. This is because any illness can make diabetes more difficult to control, and people with diabetes who do get the flu are more likely than others to go on to develop serious complications.

Myth: If you have type 2 diabetes and your doctor says you need to start using insulin, it means you're failing to take care of your diabetes properly.

Fact: For most people, type 2 diabetes is a progressive disease. When first diagnosed, many people with type 2 diabetes can keep their blood glucose at a healthy level with oral medications. But over time, the body gradually produces less and less of its own insulin, and eventually oral medications may not be enough to keep blood glucose levels normal. Using insulin to get blood glucose levels to a healthy level is a good thing, not a bad one.

Myth: Fruit is a healthy food. Therefore, it is ok to eat as much of it as you wish.

Fact: Fruit is a healthy food. It contains fiber and lots of vitamins and minerals. Because fruits contain carbohydrates, they do raise blood glucose (also called blood sugar) and need to be included in your meal plan. Talk to your dietitianabout the amount, frequency and types of fruits you should eat.

[cherry]

May 1 (UPI) -- Two naturally occurring hormones that play major roles in type 2 diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease have been identified in mice -- could have beneficial effects in humans -- according to a study.

UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine geneticists have developed a technique that looks for these molecules -- notum and lipocalin-5 -- that influence how organs and tissues communicate with each other. The findings, which the researchers ultimately hope will lead to new drugs to curb the medical conditions, were published Tuesday in the journal Cell Metabolism.

The technique pursues alternate routes of tissue-to-tissue communication.

The molecules serve different purposes. Ipocalin-5 keeps mice from developing diabetes or cures it. Lipocalin-5 reduces risk for obesity and diabetes by allowing the muscle tissue's ability to metabolize and absorb dietary nutrients.

The researchers used data to sort through the array of hormones that circulate in the bloodstream, and their individual functions.

After identifying and studying hormonal networks in mice, researchers tested to see if functions assigned to the hormones were the same in humans -- which they are.

Researchers next want to find out how these two hormones in humans communicate between unrelated types of tissue.

Additionally, they plan to investigate whether tissue-to-tissue communication works across different ethnicities and diseases.

[Trinity11]

As always @cherry, thank you for posting all this pertinent information about diabetes. I truly appreciate all that you do and the time and effort you put forth to keep us informed with the latest information.

[cherry]

By Sheri R. Colberg, PhD, FACSM

How active are you? Unless you’re exercising more than several hours a day already, you probably have room to add more in for additional health benefits. Exercise is about the best medicine that there is for so many health conditions, including diabetes. Being active helps manage emotional stress and stave off depression—far better than antidepressant medications and with no bad side effects. It naturally bestows your body with antioxidant effect, making you less likely to develop most types of cancer—or even the common cold.

When it comes to managing diabetes, the benefits are even greater. Many times, exercise can virtually erase your blood glucose mistakes. It acts as an extra dose of insulin by getting the glucose out of your blood and into your muscles without insulin (through an insulin-independent mechanism related to muscle contractions themselves). When you’re not active, your body needs insulin to stimulate that uptake. Being regularly active makes your muscles more sensitive to any insulin in your body as well, so it takes less to get the job done. What better way to help erase a little overeating of carbs (or a slight lack of insulin or insulin resistance) than a moderate dose of exercise?

One thing to know, though, is that exercise doesn’t always make your blood glucose come down, at least not right away. Intense exercise causes a burst of glucose-raising hormones (like adrenaline and glucagon) that raise your blood glucose instead, albeit usually only temporarily. But even if a workout raises it in the short run, over a longer period of time (2-3 hours), the residual effects of the exercise will bring your blood glucose back down while you’re replacing the carbs in your muscles. If you take insulin, take less than normal to correct a post-workout high or your blood glucose can come crashing down later. A cool-down of easy exercise (like less-than-brisk walking) can also help bring it back to normal.

How much muscle you have also matters to blood glucose management. Exercise helps you build and retain your muscle mass, which is the main place you store carbs after you eat them. Almost any type of exercise uses up some of your muscle glycogen, but if you don’t exercise regularly, your muscles remain packed with it. There is a maximal amount that fits in muscles, which is why building up your muscle mass helps with being able to handle the carbs you eat more effectively. Your liver stores some glucose as glycogen, but not much relative to your muscle storage capacity. Being sedentary ensures that no amount of insulin is going to be able to stimulate more blood glucose uptake into your muscles. Without regular exercise to use up glycogen, you really have nowhere to store carbs, so your blood glucose goes up and some of the excess gets turned into body fat instead. Doing resistance or heavier aerobic training is critical to maintaining the muscle mass you have and offsetting the effects of aging on muscles.

People with naturally lower levels of insulin generally live longer (think of centenarians and elite athletes, both of whom have low insulin levels). Exercise helps you keep your insulin needs low, which makes it easier to either make enough of your own or get by with much smaller doses (resulting in less of a margin for big errors in dosing). Plus, it’s a lot harder to lose body fat if your insulin levels are high or you take large doses because insulin promotes fat storage from excess blood glucose. Both the last time you exercised and how regularly you’re active have an impact on the insulin sensitivity of your muscles, so aim to exercise at least every other day (although daily is likely better) and keep all those muscle fibers you have by using them regularly.

If nothing else, start getting more active by standing up more, taking extra steps during the day, fidgeting, and just generally being on the move whenever and wherever possible. Knowing that hopefully takes away your excuses for not being more active. If you can’t get in a planned workout on any given day, you can certainly add in more steps or other activity all day long instead (or do it in addition to your usual exercise). Every bit of movement you do during the day counts, so fidget away as part of your daily dose of exercise!

Sheri R. Colberg, PhD, is the author of Diabetes & Keeping Fit For Dummies. She is Professor Emerita of Exercise Science from Old Dominion University and an internationally recognized diabetes motion expert. She is the author of 12 books, 25 book chapters, and over 300 articles. She was honored with the 2016 American Diabetes Association Outstanding Educator in Diabetes Award. Contact her via her websites (SheriColberg.com and DiabetesMotion.com).

Check out my latest book, Diabetes and Keeping Fit For Dummies. It offers all the guidance and step-by-step instruction you need to make exercise a priority in your diabetes management. This informative, down-to-earth guide shows you how to incorporate exercise into your routine, even if you haven’t been in a gym since high school. 

[cherry]

A high carbohydrate diet could lead to earlier menopause, according to new findings from the University of Leeds.

Greater consumption of carb-heavy foods such as pasta and rice was associated with women reaching menopause one-and-a-half years earlier than the average age of women in the UK, which is 51.

While it's not clear if this association is causal, the findings indicate another possible downside to eating a high level of carbohydrate and particularly refined carbohydrate. This type of study can only show associations and further research would be needed to validate these findings.

Menopause is the general term that describes the end of a woman's menstrual cycle, where reduced oestrogen can lead to hot flushes and night sweats, among other symptoms.

As part of the study, women aged 45-60 were examined to assess their onset of natural menopause. They also filled in food frequency questionnaires to assess associations with diet.

A diet high in refined pasta and rice was linked with earlier menopause, while legumes and oily fish - the former is still relatively high in carbs within the context of a low carb diet - delayed the onset of menopause. Overall, a higher intake of carbohydrate was linked with earlier menopause by 0.2 years among women 50 years old and younger.

One theory behind the findings is that legumes, which have been linked previously to reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes, contain antioxidants, which may inhibit menstruation for longer. Meanwhile, because heightened carb consumption increases the risk of insulin resistance, menstrual cycles could be affected due to increased oestrogen and altered hormone levels.

Kathy Abernethy, menopause specialist nurse and chairwoman of the British Menopause Society, who wasn’t involved in the study, said: "This study doesn't prove a link with the foods mentioned, but certainly contributes to the limited knowledge we currently have on why some women go through menopause earlier than others."

The University of Leeds researchers, led by Professor Janet Cade, ruled out confounding variables such as weight, reproductive history and use of hormone replacement therapy in explaining the results, but were unable to consider genetic factors, which can influence age of menopause.

"A clear understanding of how diet affects the start of natural menopause will be very beneficial to those who may already be at risk or have a family history of certain complications related to menopause," said Prof Cade.

The research appears in the Journal of Epidemiology &Community Health.

[cherry]

Like many children, Andrew Hightower, 13, likes pizza, sandwiches and dessert.

But Andrew has Type 1 diabetes, and six years ago, in order to control his blood sugar levels, his parents put him on a low-carbohydrate, high-protein diet. His mother makes him recipes with diabetic-friendly ingredients that won’t spike his blood sugar, like pizza with a low-carb, almond-flour crust; homemade bread with walnut flour instead of white flour; and yogurt topped with blueberries, raspberries and nuts.

Andrew’s diet requires careful planning — he often takes his own meals with him to school. But he and his parents say it makes it easier to manage his condition and, since starting the diet, his blood sugar control has markedly improved and he has not had any diabetes complications requiring trips to the hospital.

“I do this so that I can be healthy,” Andrew, who lives with his parents in Jacksonville, Fla., said of his diet. “When I eventually move out and go to college, I’m going to keep up what I’m doing because I’m on the right path.”

Most diabetes experts do not recommend low-carb diets for people with Type 1 diabetes, especially children. Some worry that restricting carbs can lead to dangerously low blood sugar levels, a condition known as hypoglycemia, and potentially stunt a child’s growth. But a new study published in the journal Pediatrics on Monday suggests otherwise.

It found that children and adults with Type 1 diabetes who followed a very low-carb, high-protein diet for an average of just over two years — combined with the diabetes drug insulin at smaller doses than typically required on a normal diet — had “exceptional” blood sugar control. They had low rates of major complications, and children who followed it for years did not show any signs of impaired growth.

The study found that the participants’ average hemoglobin A1C a long-term barometer of blood sugar levels, fell to just 5.67 percent. An A1C under 5.7 is considered normal, and it is well below the threshold for diabetes, which is 6.5 percent.

“Their blood sugar control seemed almost too good to be true,” said Belinda Lennerz, the lead author of the study and an instructor in the division of pediatric endocrinology at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. “It’s nothing we typically see in the clinic for Type 1 diabetes.”

The new study comes with an important caveat. It was an observational study, not a randomized trial with a control group. The researchers recruited 316 people, 130 of them children whose parents gave consent, from a Facebook group dedicated to low-carb diets for diabetes, called TypeOneGrit, then reviewed their medical records and contacted their medical providers.

While it was not a clinical trial, the study is striking because it highlights a community of patients who have been “extraordinarily successful” at controlling their diabetes with a very low-carb diet, said Dr. David M. Harlan, the co-director of the Diabetes Center of Excellence at the UMass Memorial Medical Center, who was not involved in the study. “Perhaps the surprise is that for this large number of patients it is much safer than many experts would have suggested.”

“I’m excited to see this paper,” Dr. Harlan added. . “It should reopen the discussion about whether this is something we should be offering our patients as a therapeutic approach.”

The authors of the paper cautioned that the findings should not lead patients to alter their diabetes management without consulting their doctors, and that large clinical trials will be necessary to determine whether this approach should be used more widely.

“We think the findings point the way to a potentially exciting new treatment option,” said Dr. David Ludwig, a co-author of the study and a pediatric endocrinologist at Boston Children’s Hospital who has written popular books about low-carb diets. “However, because our study was observational, the results should not, by themselves, justify a change in diabetes management.”

About 1.25 million Americans have Type 1 diabetes, which occurs when the pancreas does not produce enough insulin to regulate blood sugar levels. Managing the condition requires administering insulin throughout the day, especially when consuming meals high in carbs, which raise blood sugar more than other nutrients. Over time, chronically elevated blood sugar can lead to nerve and kidney damage and cardiovascular disease.

The standard approach for people with Type 1 diabetes is to match carb intake with insulin. But the argument for restricting carbs is that it keeps blood sugar more stable and requires less insulin, resulting in fewer highs and lows. The approach has not been widely studied or embraced for Type 1 diabetes, but some patients swear by it.

TypeOneGrit has about 3,000 members on Facebook who ascribe to a program devised by Dr. Richard Bernstein, an 84-year-old physician with Type 1 diabetes. His book, “Dr. Bernstein’s Diabetes Solution,” recommends limiting daily carb intake to about 30 grams, the amount in a sweet potato, large apple or two slices of whole wheat bread.

Dr. Bernstein argues that the fewer carbs consumed, the easier it is to stabilize blood sugar with insulin. He recommends foods like nonstarchy vegetables, seafood, nuts, meat, yogurt, tofu and recipes made with soybean flour, sugar substitutes and other low-glycemic ingredients. His plan emphasizes protein intake, which he says is especially important for growing children.

Dr. Carrie Diulus, an orthopedic surgeon with Type 1 diabetes who follows a low-carb vegan diet, credits the Bernstein approach with helping her keep her blood sugar under control. “It allows me to perform complex spine surgeries without worrying about my diabetes because my blood sugar stays relatively stable,” said Dr. Diulus, who helped inspire the new study when researchers learned about her participation in the TypeOneGrit community.

The most striking finding of the new report was that A1C levels, on average, fell from 7.15 percent, in the diabetic range, to 5.67 percent, which is normal. The rate of diabetes-related hospitalizations also fell, from 8 percent before the diet to 2 percent after, including fewer hospitalizations for hypoglycemic seizures.

Those following the diet had increased LDL cholesterol, likely from consuming more saturated fat, which some experts said was potentially concerning and deserved further study. But other heart disease risk factors appeared favorable: They had high HDL cholesterol, the protective kind, and low triglycerides, a type of fat in the blood linked to heart disease.

Dr. Joyce Lee, a diabetes expert at the University of Michigan who was not involved in the study, said the findings were impressive and merited further follow-up, and that patients who wanted to explore a low-carb approach might do so while being monitored by their health care team. But she also noted that the patients in the new study were a “highly motivated” group, and that it would be difficult for many people to adopt the restrictive regimen they followed.

“The reality is that it’s really hard to do low-carb, given our cultural norms,” said Dr. Lee, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Michigan.

In an interview, Dr. Bernstein, a co-author on the paper, said it demonstrates what he sees in his practice: That there are diabetics on his regimen “who are walking around with normal blood sugars and they are happy about it, healthy, and growing if they are kids.”

Derek Raulerson, 46, a human resources manager in Alabama, agrees. Both he and his son, Connor, 13, have Type 1 diabetes. Mr. Raulerson said he struggled for years to control his blood sugar. But six years ago, he gave up juice, bread, potatoes and other simple carbs, and made protein and nonstarchy vegetables the focus of his meals.

Since going low-carb, he said, he has lost weight, cut in half the amount of insulin he uses daily, and watched his A1C fall from the diabetic range to normal levels.

“I have normalized, steady blood sugars now,” he said. “I am no longer on the roller coaster.”