Attention type 1 diabetics
Attention type 1 diabetics
“They keep this up and JAMA will end up a nutritional journal!”
That comment comes from HSI Panelist Allan Spreen, M.D., who has been reading the Journal of the American Medical Association for many years. And he’s still amazed when JAMA editors feature a study that shows how a dietary intervention might effectively treat a common disease – something they’ve rarely done for most of the journal’s history.
Dr. Spreen’s comment arrived in an e-mail along with a remarkable study from The Barbara Davis Center for Childhood Diabetes in Colorado. For more than six years, researchers followed dietary data collected from 1,770 infants who were at high risk of developing type 1 diabetes.
In the conclusion of their study the authors wrote: “Dietary intake of omega-3 fatty acids is associated with reduced risk of IA in children at increased genetic risk for type 1 diabetes.”
“IA” is pancreatic islet autoimmunity, a condition that eventually develops into diabetes. Studies have shown that it’s far easier to prevent IA than to prevent the progression of IA to diabetes.
Please share this study with any adults you know who have type 1 diabetes. They might find that the addition of omega-3-rich foods in their children’s’ diets could reap very healthy dividends.
Sources:
“Omega-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid Intake and Islet Autoimmunity in Children at Increased Risk for Type 1 Diabetes” Journal of the American Medical Association, Vol. 298, No. 12, 9/26/07, jama.ama-assn.org
