December 3, 1999
Research: Cure
Question from Hong Kong:
My 7 year old daughter was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes 3 months ago. She is currently in her honeymoon period though I think she may be coming out of it as we have had to start increasing her insulin doses recently. She weighs almost 20 kg and is currently receiving Actrapid 1 Monotard 6 in the morning and A1M1 in the evening.
I recently read in an Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine that the vitamin niacin in the form of niacinamide has been shown in recent tests to restore beta cells in Type 1 diabetics and in some cases reverse the effects of the diabetes in newly diagnosed patients.
Do you know anything about this? Would it do any harm to take the niacinamide anyway since it’s only a vitamin? And what would be the dosage for a 7 year old?
Answer:
There have been several double blind controlled trials of nicotinamide in attempts to prolong the honeymoon period. Whilst there is some evidence that nicotinamide can stave off the need for insulin in children that have antibodies, once insulin dependence is established, it does not affect the course of islet cell destruction.
DOB
