What Alternatives?

Write about alternative treatments / regimens / medicine. What do you support? What is crazy?

Some days it seems like everyone's great-grandmother, third cousin, and neighbor's friend has a supposed "cure" for type 1 diabetes. Be it massive doses of cinnamon, unique herbs, the bark of a special tree, or a new mysterious diet, the claims of diabetes being curable and/or reversible are abundant. Alas, they are also a load of crap.

Type 1 diabetes is autoimmune disease that is NOT curable, reversible, or preventable. The pancreas of a person with type 1 diabetes no longer produces insulin, so it has to be injected subcutaneously, either via syringe, pen, or pump. The ONLY treatment, regime, or medicine that will keep a type 1 diabetic alive is insulin. Period. There is no way around this. No insulin = death.

Sure, there are lots of things that might help a person with type 1 diabetes to live a long and healthy life. Exercise, a healthy diet, and good blood glucose control are all very important. But they alone, together, or in combination with any above said "cures" will all result in the same disastrous outcome. No insulin = death.

There will always be people spouting false and unfounded ideas about cures for diseases, just as there will always be those of us trying, again and again, to educate them. All we can do is address them one person at a time.