Were there any cases of full recovery from juvenile Type 1 diabetes?

Two cases of true spontaneous remission of “Type 1 diabetes” come to mind but both are exceptions to the rule. The short answer is that there are no cures for type 1 diabetes at present.

However, transient neonatal diabetes sometimes spontaneously goes into remission. It sometimes becomes glucose intolerance and sometimes insulin production does seem to return completely. It’s unexplained and unpredictable. I have two personal experiences in siblings where this occurred.

Some cases of Type 2 diabetes in youngsters who present in ketoacidosis and require enormous amounts of insulin for a few months then seem to make enough insulin to not only stop insulin injections but only be treated diet and/or oral agents. We do not understand why some present with such a huge insulin deficiency that DKA occurs while others, perhaps diagnosed earlier in the scheme of things, need standard weight loss, increased exercise and/or oral agents. This is likely to be seen more often as more type 2 diabetes in children and adolescents occurs around the world, especially in Black, Asian, Latino and Native American/Canadian kids get more obese – in rich as well as poor parts of the world. These type 2 kids, of course, are not type 1s, but merely received treatment with insulin.

SB