for teens

Weight Woes & Dieting Disasters
by Janet Barrett

Hey ladies, with a big event coming up and a gorgeous, slinky dress already picked out, you may figure the surest way to drop a few pounds is to cut your insulin intake in half. Guys, you're not off the hook: Those love handles you're afraid of might make you think about it too.

Does cutting insulin make you lose weight? Sure, as your body voids half the carbs it ingests through excessive urination (not unlike weight loss before type 1 diabetes is diagnosed).

Dangerous? Absolutely, say the experts.

In fact, it's a type of eating disorder, they say. Yet Margaret Grey, Ph.D., R.N., of the Yale University Program for Youth with Diabetes, also admits it's pretty commonplace among young people with diabetes. "It's not surprising, given how closely food has been scrutinized, that eating behaviors in kids get disturbed," she says.

And girls in particular may be fighting extra concerns, with a tendency toward weight gain from intensive insulin therapy.

While it may not seem that reducing insulin for a few days can do any real harm, Dr. Grey says the risk is signficant--especially if you start to get a cold or flu. You "can get way out of control in a very short period of time." Without enough insulin, your body can't keep up, and you can wind up with diabetic ketoacidosis, she says.

Furthermore, a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine indicated that eating disorders are not only widespread among teenage girls with diabetes but that long-range complications appear to be real. Citing the use of laxatives, self-induced vomiting, and avoiding insulin as ways to keep weight down, lead researcher Anne Rydall of Toronto Hospital said the most striking finding was damage to blood vessels in the eyes, a condition known as diabetic retinopathy.

So before you skip that insulin shot, do yourself a favor and think about the short- and long-term problems. Is it worth it?