Detecting diabetes before the first symptoms appear (1,5-anhydroglucitol test)

Medical Xpress / University of Geneva / The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism ^ | August 16, 2022 | Cecilia Jiménez-Sánchez et al

[ConservativeMind]

A team has discovered a molecule that can identify the development of diabetes before the first symptoms appear.

Diabetes is a growing metabolic disorder. A sedentary lifestyle and an excessively rich diet damage the beta cells of the pancreas, promoting the onset of this disease. If detected early, its progression could be reversed, but diagnostic tools that allow for early detection are lacking. A team has discovered that a low level of the sugar 1,5-anhydroglucitol in the blood is a sign of a loss in functional beta cells. This molecule, easily identified by a blood test, could be used to identify the development of diabetes in people at risk, before the situation becomes irreversible.

This metabolic disorder is constantly increasing due to the combined effect of a lack of physical activity and an unbalanced diet. If detected early enough at the pre-diabetes stage, progression to an established diabetes can be counteracted by adopting an appropriate lifestyle. Unfortunately, one third of patients already have cardiovascular, renal or neuronal complications at the time of diagnosis, which impacts their life expectancy.

The team was able to identify, from thousands of molecules, the one that best reflects a loss of beta cells at the pre-diabetic stage: namely 1,5-anhydroglucitol, a small sugar, whose decrease in blood would indicate a deficit in beta cells.

"Diabetes is a complex disease in which many metabolic changes occur in parallel. It was therefore essential to test the relevance of this marker in people who suffer a sudden loss of their beta cells but in the absence of metabolic disorders," explains Pierre Maechler. "By studying the level of 1,5-anhydroglucitol in individuals whose half of the pancreas had been surgically removed, we were able to demonstrate that 1,5-anhydroglucitol is a blood indicator of the functional quantity of pancreatic beta cells."

[ConservativeMind]

This test is available from Quest Diagnostics, among other testing firms.

[ConservativeMind]

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[logi_cal869]

A sedentary lifestyle and an excessively rich diet damage the beta cells of the pancreas

i.e., self-inflicted. My father saw his condition progressively worsen over 12 years until he was taking insulin for the past 5 or so years.

He recently had an injury which required a rehabilitation facility term while he healed to the point of home care discharge.

I predicted that he would be off insulin before he came home, but I was egregiously wrong about the timeline:

He was off insulin in 2 weeks and achieved normal blood sugar levels in 3.

There is no excuse for T2 diabetes. My words for it always fall on deaf ears ("one foot in the grave"), thus I've adopted a more harsh term for T2D:

Suicide

[ConservativeMind]

How did he normalize his blood sugar, when those facilities feed tons of carbs and people don’t move?

[logi_cal869]

The meals he was fed were spartan with one overarching theme:

A fraction of the sugar intake and calories of his regular habits (the meals were also a bit heavy on the carbs).

I’ve always argued that it’s not about the carbs per se and that keto is both a gross oversimplification of dietary practices and quite dangerous (plus unnecessary, save for an initiation regimen).

[higgmeister]

This title is rather odd.   My doctor was telling me that I was pre-diabetic for a couple of years before he finally made the diagnosis.

[ConservativeMind]

Prediabetic is effectively a state that looks bad, but you can’t tell how close a person actually is to having diabetes. It’s very vague and there’s still plenty of things to point at, but this newer indicator can now tell you that you just became diabetic or that you have six months before you are, for instance.

[higgmeister]

Prediabetic is effectively a state that looks bad, but you can’t tell how close a person actually is to having diabetes. It’s very vague and there’s still plenty of things to point at, but this newer indicator can now tell you that you just became diabetic or that you have six months before you are, for instance.

Are you a doctor?   All my doctor did was look at my A1C.   He also said that he could not even get a successful tri-glyceride test because my carbohydrates were so high.   I was chain drinking Coca-Cola every day, kept a huge container of atomic fireballs on my desk at work and consumed bags of gummy bears because The Doctor at the time, Tom Baker, ate jelly babies.   That plus the usual ice cream, cakes and cookies made the diagnosis a cinch as far as I could tell.

If you are wondering, right then, I stopped my excessive sugar intake.   I read the labels and don't buy anything over 6 grams of sugar per serving.   I'm well controlled with Metformin and Glimepiride and I've never had a problem at all.

[know.your.why]

Anyone on Trulicity for diabetes?

[RummyChick]

There will be a lot of resistance to this test by Drs who will want to use A1c.

So if anyone wants this test you can order yourself through directlabs. It’s called glycomark.

[silverleaf]

Thanks!

[matthew fuller]

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/4-supplements-as-powerful-as-drugs#TOC_TITLE_HDR_1

#1, berberine, reportedly is just as effective as Metformin.