Brittle Type 1 Now Listed as a Rare, Distinct Diabetes

This is another point against doctors. Most doctors are unwilling to admit they are in error, treat the patient as a non-adherent person, and cause untold harm to patients. For this, I must ask when these doctors are going to learn that they are fallible and start treating patients with the respect they are due.

“The National Institutes of Health recently listed brittle type 1 diabetes as a rare disease, a distinct and separate form of type 1. An estimated 3,700 to 8,700 persons in the United States have the condition.” We are fortunate we have even this estimate the way doctor's act. While I am a person with type 2 diabetes and am insulin dependent, I can sympathize with these people with type 1 who get no respect from doctors.

Brittle diabetes is known for rapid, unpredictable, and uncontrollable rises and falls in blood glucose levels. The Brittle Diabetes Foundation says there are 18 known causes for the condition. When doctors properly diagnose and properly treat people with brittle diabetes, they generally are able to achieve a stable type 1 pattern. Because of the rarity of brittle diabetes, people with this condition often go undiagnosed. These patients are determined by doctors to be non-adherent to established diabetes management routines.

What is surprising is that most cases of brittle diabetes are diagnosed when patients are in the hospital. When these patients fail to respond to conventional methods for stabilizing blood glucose levels, this opens the door for proper diagnosis. It is not that these doctors are any smarter, but when patients can be said to be adherent, doctors must attempt to discover what the cause is that is driving the uncontrolled ups and downs of blood glucose levels.

The Brittle Diabetes Foundation was formed in 2012 to address what is says has been 80 years of neglect by the medical community despite ample research into and documentation of brittle diabetes.

In the wake of the National institute of Health's recognition of the condition, the agency has set up a website dealing with brittle diabetes at this link.