Type 1 diabetes may be preventable

HELSINKI, Finland, Nov. 15 (UPI) -- Finnish and Canadian researchers suggest an infant diet change may help prevent type1 diabetes from being initialized in children at risk for the disease.

Hans Akerblom of the University of Helsinki led researchers in Finland and Canada in a pilot study of the diet intervention -- using an hydrolyzed casein-based formula when weaning infants -- rather than a regular cow's milk formula.

"The study showed that the safe and simple dietary intervention applied in this pilot trial was capable of reducing the emergence of diabetes-predictive auto-antibodies by about 50 percent by age 10 in the participants carrying increased disease risk," Mikael Knip of the University of Helsinki said in a statement.

"The current study population does not provide sufficient statistical power to definitely conclude whether an intervention of this type will reduce the frequency of clinical type 1 diabetes, although the preliminary data are promising."

The randomized pilot study was based on 23 newborn infants whose cord blood screening test at birth revealed a predisposing genotype and whose history included at least one family member with type 1 diabetes.