July 6, 2003
Other Medications
Question from Forest City, North Carolina, USA:
My 13 year old son, who has had type 1 diabetes for two years, is also developmentally disabled, and has some autistic and obsessive-compulsive behaviors. I have been doing some reading about treatment of autism with enzymes that supposedly help improve digestion of foods that the children may have sensitivities to. What effect these enzymes would have on blood sugar levels if I were to try them with my son?
Answer:
There is probably not very much information available about this. If the enzymes would digest carbohydrates, this would make the carbs relatively faster in their absorption characteristics. My clinical guess is that you won’t see very much real difference in glucose control but frequent glucose monitoring would allow you to know about any such effects. Comparing before meal to after meal monitoring would answer such questions for you.
SB
