Dr. David Clark, DC - Dallas, TX - helps women understand the autoimmune disease Type 1 Diabetes and shares important information about what to do about it.
Let’s talk about another autoimmune condition that affects women: Type 1 diabetes.
Type 1 diabetes, you may know as juvenile diabetes. Most cases of Type 1 diabetes are picked up in childhood.
However, you can develop Type 1 diabetes when you are older. In Type 1 diabetes, the problem is your immune system attacks and kills one or more of thse:
- Pancreas
- Insulin
- Insulin receptors
No matter which are being destroye, it causes the same symptoms. So let’s review here.
What does insulin do?
Insulin is secreted by your pancreasm, insulin's normal job is to help get blood sugar out of your bloodstream and get it into your cells and tissues.
When you don’t have enough insulin--because you’re destroying your pancreas, insulin, or insulin receptors--the glucose piles up in your bloodstream. Because the glucose--the fuel--is not in cells you can suffer these symptoms:
- Fatigue
- Foggy thinking, confusion, memeory loss
- Weight loss,
- Hungry all the time
- Excessive urination
- Insect bites and wounds heal very slowly
- Blood tests how HIGH glucose, HIGH Hemoglobin A1c
So that's the basic science and the symptoms of Type 1 Diabetes, but.....
This next sentence is the ONE thing you must understand about Type 1 Diabetes
If you’ve got one autoimmune condition--like Type 1 Diabetes--there’s a really good chance you’ve probably got another autoimmune condition.
Here's why:
Having an autoimmune problem means that your immune system has lost its normal ability to tolerate you. It's kind of like a taboo has been broken. Now, your entire body is at risk for attack.
type 1 diabetes sometimes shows up in people that already have
- Vitiligo
- Rheumatoid arthritis
- Hashimoto's hypothyroidism
- Celiac Disease
- Alopecia Areata
- Ulcerative Colitis
When you develop a lchain of these different autoimmune conditions, that means the autoimmune attack has expanded into other tissues.
What are the triggers for Type 1 Diabetes?
Research clearly shows that gluten and casein are known triggers for the development of Type 1 Diabetess.
If you have a family history of Type 1 Diabetes but you haven’t been diagnosed yet...I would stay away from gluten and milk products forever. If you don't, you're playing Russian roulette. You’re just hoping Type 1 Dabetes doesn’t show up. You’re probably one infection or one stressful event away from being triggered.
I’m not trying to be alarmist, I’m just telling you I live in a world where these things are real and I take them very seriously. We try to prevents these things from being triggered.
If you already know you have ONE autoimmune condition....and then you start suffering these:
- Fatigue
- Foggy thinking, confusion, memeory loss
- Weight loss,
- Hungry all the time
- Excessive urination
- Insect bites and wounds heal very slowly
- Blood tests how HIGH glucose, HIGH Hemoglobin A1c
...you need to get checked out for Type 1 Diabetes. This is seroius. You may have very little pancreas function left.
Often, these people have to get insulin injections or take othem edications.
But even the insulin injections don’t stop the autoimmune process that caused the Type 1 Diabetes in the first place.
Slowing down the autoimmune process is a battle that must be fought if you want to decrease the chances of develop another autoimmune condition.
It is very important that you’re working with someone that understands that this is an autoimmune problem, and understands that Insulin does not stop the autoimmune destruction.
The relationship between Type 1 diabetes and insulin, is almost identical to that between Hashimoto’s and thyroid hormones.
In Hashimoto’s, your immune system is attacking and destroying your thyroid gland. You get prescribes thyroid hormones --because you do needt them-- but the replacement hormones don't stop the autoimmune process.
Same thing with Type 1 diabetes. Getting insulin shots doesn’t stop the autoimmune process from expanding....looking for something else to attack...causing MORE problems and MORE symptoms, depending on which tissue is destroyed.
For example, a person will have Type1 Diabetes PLUS:
- Rheumatoid Arthritis - joint pain, swelling and deformity
- Pernicious Anemia - B12 deficiency, neuropathy, fatigue slow mental processing
- Hashimoto's -- low thyroid symptoms such as constipation, fatigue, hair loss, brain fog
The take-away point:
I hope that you’re working with someone that understands those issues that I just explained to you, And if you have Type 1 diabetes, you’ve got to understand that getting an insulin shot doesn’t solve your biggest problem: you have autoimmune condition that’s trying to kill you,
You need to find someone that understands that there action steps to dampen, control and manage the autoimmune process--but it’s complex.
This short list is just a few critical factors: food senstivites, gut permeability, occult infections, immune system balancing, neurological functions...
You have to find someone that’s trained and usess a functional approach for Type 1 Diabetes, not just a replacement approach.
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© 2012 David Clark. All Rights Reserved.
Dr. David Clark, DC
Functional Neurologist (FACFN)
Diplomate College of Clinical Nutrition
Board Certified Chiropractic Neurologist
Vestibular Rehab Specialist (ACNB)
214-341-3737
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