<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>

Fran said

>>is it less of a *real threat* if a type 2 struggles with too high bg's
>>and potential complications, than a type 1 dealing with daily insulin?

and too high bgs and potential complications. "Dead in bed" does not
happen to Type 2s.  Hypoglycemia is a vastly under-recorded complication
of Type 1 diabetes: autopsies more than a couple hours after death won't
show low blood sugar. Even with that under-reporting, it's documented that
13% of Type 1s die of insulin reactions.

Following doesn't have the best documentation ( refereed articles) but it
shows the character of the problem. Click on the report on hypoglyycemia
and on  the late (4 year old) Caleb's story.

http://www.traders.co.uk/insulintrust/

>>. 60% of type 2's wind up on insulin,

Source of that? That says 5-6 million on insulin in US. 1.5 million is the
figure I've heard, split equally between Type 1s and 2s.  More
importantly, being on some injected insulin is not the same as being only
on injected insulin with no protective feedback control from the
pancreas/liver combination.

>>and that
>>liver/glucose storage mechanism can be a curse rather than a blessing
>>when it comes to dawn phenomenon.

No. Dawn phenomen occurs in Type 1's as well with the added risk  of
hypoglycemic reaction.

>>>>>>>Yes, the hypo factor is greater when using either insulin OR the most
>>popular oral medication- the sulfonylurea drugs- glucotrol, glynase,
>>glipazide etc....
>>These have a notorious ability to casue lows unless you have a very
>>rigid meal schedule.

Can you lose consciousness from these drugs? ER "visits" are a fact of
life for Type 1s.

>>>>>>>> Maybe we should just agree to disagree on this one.  Who knows if
>>the oral meds have other side effects that can be more dangerous than
>>insulin....

Danger of acute (sudden) death is more serious than a potential (?)
chronic risk, isn't it?

My original point was not the relative dangers of either Type but rather
that there are significant differences between advice for one and advice
for the other.

Example:  The cardiac risk for Type 1s is as high as that for Type 2s, but
for completely different reasons.  Furthermore, there are no clinical trials
identifying possible causes.  All your wonderful suggestions to help Type 2s
are useless for seldom overweight Type 1s whose lipid profile usually appears
absolutely safe.  Yet, autopsies of some 25 young Type 1s who died for other
reasons found significant signs of coronary artereosclerosis!  High blood
sugar may be the origin but then there's that cliff...

"Take this", says the cardiologist, while admitting that he doesn't know
if it will do any good.

                           Kemp

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