Originally published December 6 2005
Doctors warn about the increase of double diabetes cases
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Dr. Francine Kaufman, head of the Center for Diabetes and Endocrinology at Children's Hospital, Los Angeles, discusses the hybrid form of diabetes that subjects sufferers to the complications of both type 1 and type 2 diabetes.
It's a scene occurring with increasing frequency in doctors' offices across America: A patient, usually overweight, comes in with all the symptoms of obesity-linked type 2 diabetes.
But blood tests reveal antibodies to the pancreatic beta cells that produce insulin -- a sign that the patient also has the rarer type 1 form of the disease.
"We call it 'double diabetes,' or hybrid diabetes," said Dr. Francine Kaufman, past president of the American Diabetes Association and head of the Center for Diabetes and Endocrinology at Children's Hospital, Los Angeles.
She and other experts warn that a growing number of patients are being spotted with both forms of the disease.
In type 1 diabetes, which affects 5 percent of all diabetics, the body's immune system turns against beta cells in the pancreas that produce the insulin needed to regulate blood sugar.
In the much more common, obesity-linked type 2 variety, increasing demand from the body fat's cells causes a gradual shortfall of, and resistance to, insulin.
Medication and regular monitoring of blood sugar are essential to keep type 2 patients safe and healthy.
On the flip side, other young patients may have had type 1 since childhood, become obese in adolescence "and begin to look like they have elements of type 2 diabetes," Kaufmann said.
America's obesity epidemic is clearly driving the trend toward more and more diabetes, experts say.
And while links between obesity and type 2 diabetes have long been clear, research is only just beginning to suggest it can also trigger late-onset type 1 disease.
That would explain type 1 disease complicated by diet," said Dr. Stuart Weiss, an assistant clinical professor of medicine at the New York University School of Medicine in New York City.
All content posted on this site is commentary or opinion and is protected under Free Speech. Truth Publishing LLC takes sole responsibility for all content. Truth Publishing sells no hard products and earns no money from the recommendation of products. NaturalNews.com is presented for educational and commentary purposes only and should not be construed as professional advice from any licensed practitioner. Truth Publishing assumes no responsibility for the use or misuse of this material. For the full terms of usage of this material, visit www.NaturalNews.com/terms.shtml