From St. Charles, Missouri, USA

My seven year old daughter has type 1 diabetes, and my four year old daughter is ICA and GAD antibody positive. We are returning for the final glucose tolerance test to see if she will be part of the DPT-1. We have been doing some research and are considering niacinamide or nicotinamide as a supplement. What is the difference between nicotinamide and niacinamide? Please respond with any information you may have on niacinamide, whether negative or positive.

Nicotinamide and niacinamide are the same. There have been a number of trials over the last fifteen years of the effect of nicotinamide in the early management of type�1 (autoimmune) diabetes, and they have failed to induce any convincing benefit. One recent one was A multi-centre randomized trial of two different doses of nicotinamide in patients with recent-onset type 1 diabetes (the IMDIAB VI) .

A group in New Zealand demonstrated that insulin dependence could be deferred in about 60% of islet cell antibody positive schoolchildren for as long as six years or as long as they took the nicotinamide. Another large trial of this so-called pre-diabetic group is taking place in Europe (ENDIT), but the results are not yet available.

If your four year-old he turns out to be antibody, she will probably be offered a chance to enroll in the trial of oral insulin. I believe that the group getting subcutaneous insulin is now closed. She would not be offered nicotinamide as part of DPT-1.

DOB