Is it ever possible for certain type 1 diabetics to regenerate their own beta cells or even become immune to the attack? Our daughter has been honeymooning for almost a year. After being on insulin for a week after diagnosis, she was immediately taken off of it due to lows. She was completely off insulin for about six months – zero insulin. In the last four months, she has been having what I’d like to describe as “flare ups”. When she needs insulin during these so called flare ups, it is not due to illness. It seems as if she goes in and out of honeymooning. One week she will need insulin shots almost everyday, then go several weeks without needing them. It’s happened numerous times for months now. Can someone go in and out of the honeymoon?

What you describe certainly can happen although rather uncommonly. There is no clearcut explanation, just individual idiosyncracies of type 1 diabetes. When it happens to my patients, we just respond by adjusting insulin dosage according to blood glucose levels. So, it is most important to keep checking blood sugars frequently so that you and your diabetes team know how to respond. Unfortunately,at some point it is likely to end but exactly when is difficult to know for sure. Perhaps it will be with a growth spurt or perhaps with a typical, unrelated viral illness like a cold.

If she has not already been checked for other types of diabetes, although rare, this, too, may be important to consider. The same could be said for double checking typical pancreas antibodies: islet cell, ICA2, GAD-65, and ZnT8 are the four common ones available.

SB