Berry Beating Diabetes Message Board and Comments

I was also diagnosed with type 1 diabetes 5 years ago when I was 27; meaning they found my antigad test positive for immune distruction of my insulin producing cells. I recently switched to a diet of mostly just protein and veggis (similar to how Hallie Berry eats) and I am also almost completely without the need for insulin. I exercise alot as well. I think what Hallie Berry and I have is diagnosed as type 1, but we have not completely lost all of our insulin. I am working very hard to keep the little I still have. All cases are different, but I understand how heartbreaking it is to hear something that sounds impossible. Maybe it will provide some solace to you that when I read this article, it inspired me to go back to the way I was eating when I was first diagnosed with diabetes and did not take insulin. Now I am again almost without a need for it. All my best to you all, and I wish you a happy healthy new year!

And here we are nearly 1 year later, and the story still is posted without any correction or warning about the incorrect information given. Shame on you all at contact music com I suggest a disclaimer of some sort. This kind of miss-information is damaging to all of those who actually do have type 1 and all of the children out there saving pennies in their piggy banks to donate to try to really find a cure. How dare you? Dad of a real type 1 (IDDM Type 1 diagnosed 2/9/04)

she was obviously mis diagnosed to begin with, I have been type 1 for 36 years and you don't just stop needing your insulin, if you are truly type I, type 2's are often insulin resistant and can change this with diet and healthier living, type 1's just never produce any insulin to be resistant too, she is making herself look ignorant on the subject of diabetes

Un-berry-vable!!!! This has to be a joke, right? No person with Type ! diabetes would ever say such a stupid, ill-informed thing. Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes are not different stages of the same disease ... they're two different diseases. To a Type 1 diabetic, "weening" yourself off insulin would be like weening yourself off oxygen. It is not a reversible disease. There is no cure. When our daughter (now 12) was diagnosed with Type 1, we referenced Halle Berry as a role model for her ... someone famous who was living with the disease and thriving. We sent Ms. Berry a letter back then (2-1/2 years ago) asking her for a photo for our daughter. Thought it a little odd that she did not respond to a fellow Type 1 girl, newly diagnosed. Too busy? Too big? Too protected by her staff? Or, maybe just too dumb to understand? Seriously, I hope this news story is wrong and Ms. Berry never said such a thing.

Boy, I sure would like to "reclassify myself" out of type 1 diabetes. If I could do that, I could take off this pesky insulin pump, not live minute to minute in constant fear that my blood sugar will interrupt my life or cause me injury or disability, and not endure ignorant misconceptions about how I could wish my disease away. If Halle figured out how to "reclassify" herself as type 2, why didn't she just reclassify herself as non-diabetic altogether? Heck, I reclassify myself as a billionaire who lives on a private island with a bevy of handsome manservants! Dang, it didn't work. Still have type 1 diabetes, too.

It's nearly impossible for me to comprehend how she could be THIS disgustingly, banefully misinformed about her own health!!! Is she off in fairytale land... or just stupid? It is physically IMPOSSIBLE to wean yourself off insulin IF you're actually a TYPE 1. It's clear now that she is NOT and NEVER has been a type 1. If she can stop insulin, then she is a TYPE 2. They are not the same disease and one does not change into the other! Prior to 1922 and the discovery of insulin every single type 1 on this planet died. Why? Because nobody can live without insulin!!! If she's not injecting it, then her pancreas is making it for her. If her pancreas is making it for her, then she is NOT A TYPE 1!!!! Just what we need... an idiotic comment to confuse the ill-informed public even more. "Halle Berry cured herself of type 1. Why can't you???" Good Lord, please let Halle get a big fat CLUE and publicly correct her statements!!!!

Despite the glaring inaccuracy of "dropping" from Type 1 to Type 2 diabetes, which has been overwhelmingly pointed out, I'm concerned for Berry's unborn child. <p>No general practitioner, endocrinologist, or OB/GYN in their right mind would approve of Berry's flippant attitude or disregard for the realities of diabetes and its effects on a pregnant body. Being diabetic and pregnant gives Berry two options: take insulin to protect her child from high blood sugars, or eat NO carbs to keep her sugar down and therefore endanger her child with malnutrition.<p>Ms. Berry's comments endanger not only herself but her unborn child, and do a disservice to thousands of struggling diabetics, type 1 and 2 alike.

HALLE - if you are not taking insulin anymore, and are not DEAD, you were never a type 1!!!! Sheeesh!!!!

Working your way up from type 1 to type 2 is about as possible as working your way up from skin cancer to excyma. Anyone who believes that they've done this needs more than just medical attention. At the very least, they need to shut up, because other (the journalist who wrote this article, for instance) may actually come to accept their delusional self-diagnosis as fact. I would imagine this way of thinking goes a long way in helping Ms. Berry maintain her Hollywood thin physique. I just feel sorry that people who don't know any better might read her comments and believe that it's actually possible to "work your way up." It's not. So seriously; get help. Or, like I said earlier, shut up. As for the person who wrote this article, please go back to journalism school and learn something, ANYTHING about an essential component of your job that was severely neglected here: RESEARCH.

I'm very concerned about Miss Berry's inaccurate portrayal of Diabetes, and the lack of fact-checking by the reporter and editor. My son has Diabetes 1 and we've spent many hours trying to educate the public about the seriousness of this disease. A man was jailed in Minneapolis this past week and allowed to die because the jailers didn't give him the insulin his mother brought to the jail. For Miss Berry to blithely say she "weened" herself off insulin is ludicrous and medically impossible if she truly had Diabetes 1.

That is freaking wrong and retarded!!!!!!! YOU CANNOT DROP FROM TYPE1 TO TYPE 2 MY Son is diabetic type 1 because he's pancrease is dead, DEAD not because he's fat not because he needs to lose weight but because his pancrease is dead!!!! How do I get ahold of who wrote this!!! I want a reprint and apology to us who do have to live with type 1 if Halle told people she had type 1 it's because she's an idiot!!! Insulin dependent does not effect your type weather your pancrease is dead or not effects your type!!!!!

First Im sorry to hear that MS BERRY is so misinformed on her disease. Does she also know that she can pass this on to her unborn child? Some of us that havent had the disease in our familys have a CHILD OR CHILDREN THAT HAS TO DEAL WITH THIS NASTY DISEASE EVERYDAY. I personally have a child that is 5 was diagonsed at 4 has to take multiple shots a day. To see the pain in a childs face to deal with this disease also gets you EDUCATED. The first education you recieve is on what kind of disease you actually have. MS BERRY the only advise anyone can give you is if your doctor told you, that you have changed in your disease HONEY YOU NEED A DIFFERENT DOCTOR RIGHT AWAY. YOU CANT CHANGE FROM TYPE 1 TO A TYPE 2 DIFFERENT DIFFERENT DISEASE... AND I HOPE THAT YOU TOLD YOUR OB/GYN WHAT YOU THINK YOUR DISEASE WAS AND THAT HE LAUGHED AT YOU AND SAID WHATTTTTTTTTTTTTT..... ALSO HOPE HE REALLY GAVE YOU SOME ADVISE ON WHAT TO DO...... THIS ARTICLE WASNT RESEARCHED BEFORE PRINTED IM HOPING WITH ALL THESE COMMENTS THAT SHE READS THEM OR THE EDITOR READS THEM AND REQUESTIONS HER ON HER DISEASE OR GETS SOME FACTS ABOUT IT.....

Halle may have weaned herself off men that beat her and dresses with backs, but not off insulin from type one diabetes. Her statements are misleading, false, hurtful and counterproductive to the efforts of many. A public apology is in order.

Just when I thought my opinion of Halle Berry could not possibly get any lower... Berry should stick to things she knows, like helping to ruin good film franchises. While I do not support expanding our already bloated and cumbersome criminal codes, there should most certainly be criminal and civil penalties for helping to spread this kind of false and blatantly misleading disinformation. For those who think I am exaggerating, insulin-dependent diabetes in the young is not caused by the patient neglecting his or her own health. It is caused by the destruction of the specific cells within the pancreas that produce the hormone insulin. That is why it can only be treated with injections of synthetic insulin. Surely, Halle's publicist should be spanked for not researching this and informing Halle that making these kinds of statements might not have the desired effect. Halle, you are no X-Man. You are a normalistic idiot, plain and simple.

Sigh. I was diagnosed at age 20 with Type 1 diabetes. I am a bit unusual because of how old I was when I was diagnosed. This article appeared in a diabetes community I participate in. I wish Halle the best. I also wish whoever told her that she could say that she weaned herself off insulin and became a Type2 would jump off a cliff. If I skip even *one* shot my blood sugar sky rockets. If I skip my long acting insulin? I'm sick for DAYS. Type1 diabetics do NOT produce insulin. Period. End of story. Type2's DO produce insulin, perhaps not enough for they may be insulin resistant. But they do produce it. I wondered with it being Diabetes Awareness Month if she would advocate awareness for type1's. Instead she will cause all of us Type1's to be questioned why I can't ween myself off insulin. Sure I could! If I didn't want to die quickly. I hope this article doesn’t get seen by many people. I have no problem educating people and love telling them the facts of what my life is like. Seeing lies like this makes any progress we make with this disease regress.

I think that Ms Berry has just sent the diabetic community back into the stone ages. Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes are two completely different diseases. My 11 yr old son has type 1. He will have it for life, or until a cure is found. He cannot wean himself off of his insulin and suddenly call himself type 2. This is irresponsible and dangerous to state that you can. What about the type 1 girls who look up to Ms Berry that are going to think that they can do the same? As parents of type 1 children, we must constantly educate people 24/7 about the differences between the type 1 and type 2. Statements like this do not help.

WOW!!! This is what it feels like when the media tells lies about an extremely personal issue. I propose that type 1 be renamed so that it cannot be mistaken for type 2. It is impossible to jump from one to the other! THEY ARE DIFFERENT DISEASES ALTOGETHER!!! I feel as if I've been socked in the gut..........

this has got to be the biggest load of lies i have ever seen, you can not beat type one diabetes. she has always had type two diabetes and is clearly mis informed and making the diabetic public seem like unhealthy bad people. what a flying moron. don't quit your day job.

Please enlighten me on how you wean a type 1 diabetic off of injected insulin when their bodies DO NOT PRODUCE INSULIN????!!!!! Ms. Berry never had type 1, she always had type 2. You can not "downgrade to a type 2". It is possible that she had to take insulin in the beginning to regulate her sugar because she was an uncontrolled type 2, but she was NEVER a type 1. Please revise your article. I really hope you misquoted Ms. Berry because if you did not, she is a complete idiot.

It is impossible for someone to "drop" from type 1 to type 2 diabetes -- they are completely different diseases.

I am not sure who is more retarded the person who actually wrote that or HB for saying it, if she actually did!! Quite possibly the dumbest thing I have read this year.

I also have a daughter with Type 1 and would like the the editors of this blog and Ms. Berry respond to these comments. On my site, it is ironic to see an advertisement on the left margin of the site asking "Do you have Type 1 diabetes" for a research firm (Protege).

This is probably the most ridiculous,ignorant thing I've ever read! As the parent of a child with type 1 diabetes, I can tell you..you cannot "wean" yourself off of insulin! My son's pancreas does NOT FUNCTION! If she truly had type 1 diabetes, she wouldn't produce any insulin...and therefore couldn't go with NO INSULIN whatsoever. My gosh, nice of the ignorance to be spread via celebs once again.

I can't believe you would print this without checking facts first. As many others have pointed out, type 1 and type 2 diabetes are very different. And there is no way for a type 1 diabetic to be "downgraded" to type 2. You can't, as a type 1, wean yourself from insulin and "consider yourself in the type 2 category." It's really dangerous and ignorant to print this. People are uninformed enough about diabetes as it is. Type 1 diabetes is caused by the immune system destroying the cells that make insulin in the pancreas. Because the cells are destroyed, the body no longer has any ability to produce insulin. Without insulin to process the food consumed - a person dies. When you are diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, you can rest assured that for the REST OF YOUR LIFE - not matter how well you eat or how much you work out - you WILL NEED insulin TO SURVIVE. To say otherwise is just ridiculous. ANY doctor will tell you that this is the case. Unless Halle Berry has somehow come up with some kind of "miracle cure" that allowed her to reproduce cells her immune system killed off AND keep those cells safe from another immune system attack - there is NO FREAKING way she is a type 1 who weaned herself from insulin. A more likely explanation is that she's a type 2. Type 2 diabetics have bodies that don't allow them to properly use the insulin that their body produces. Some type 2s can go their whole life after diagnosis (which usually happens in adulthood) without using insulin at all. I have seen so many varying reports about what type of diabetes Halle Berry has and what she takes to control it, I don't know what to believe anymore. Does she even have diabetes???? But the bottom line is - you can't just go printing crap like this without fact-checking. It causes people a lot of pain and inconvenience. As a person that has lived with type 1 for 25 years, I can tell you that anyone who sees this will be asking me and others like me "Why don't you just wean yourself off of the insulin, like Halle Berry?" And the only answer I'll have is "Don't believe everything you read. There is no way to wean yourself from insulin if you're type 1 and you can't become type 2 if you're a type 1 diabetic." I wish her luck with her pregnancy, but I also wish she - and news sources like yours - would get her - and your - s**t together and start spreading knowledge about these diseases and how they differ, instead of spreading even more ignorance.

For cyring out loud! How can you even post such a story without first reviewing facts? Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease and is NOT curable. The pancreas no longer produces insulin or regulating hormones. Type 2 is a completely different disease and is often caused by lifestyle choices. If Halle Berry was an insulin dependent type 1, then she still is. Her baby could suffer the consequences of her "weaning herself off insulin". That baby could die...a harsh reality that she needs to face. For those of us that strive to keep our children healthy, this kind of misleading information in inexcusable. Don't you really think if a cure existed, the rest of us would have been in line long before miss Halle??

Please be careful with what you write. There is NO way for a type 1 to downgrade to type 2. Type 1 is a autoimmune disease and there is NO CURE. I would sell my soul for one, as my 8 year old son is a type 1 insulin dependent and wears both a insulin pump and a cgms. It is such a disservice to those with this disease. Type 1 and type 2 are completely different diseases. So irresponsible to print this. Please explain to my son how to be cured, he would love it. Possibly she was misdiagnosed...also pregnant women with type 1 often time see a decrease in insulin needs. Some research before printing this "junk" would be appreciated.

Halle Berry was never a Type 1 diabetic if she is no longer taking insulin and isn't dead or in the hospital! Just because you take insulin doesn't mean you are a Type 1 diabetic! Type 2's often take insulin. Ms. Berry, of whom I have always been a fan, has been sadly misinformed about her own disease and in turn is misinforming hundreds of thousands of others with her statements! I am Type 1 diabetic and have been for 22 years. Trust me when I say there is NO CURE for diabetes and a true Type 1 diabetic will be dead or in the hospital within a few days if they stop taking their insulin! I'm glad Ms. Berry has her Type 2 diabetes under control enough that she no longer needs insulin. But she should learn more about the disease she has instead of simply relying on doctors to tell her about it. Knowledge is power.

She may have weaned herself off birth control, men that beat her and gowns with backs, BUT she hasn't weaned herself off type 1 diabetes and the insulin that goes with it. If she deed in fact say that, she's very misinformed. If she didnt say it EXACTLY that way, and you printed what you thought she meant, well, you're an idiot.

Jeez... not again. Listen up folks, from someone who has had Type 1 diabetes since the age of ten. Type 1 Diabetes and Type 2 diabetes are COMPLETELY DIFFERENT DISEASES!!!! Type 1 diabetics do not magically morph into Type 2 diabetics and I'm absolutely sick of the media getting this wrong. Type 1 diabetes occurs when a person's immune system goes haywire and destroys the insulin producing cells in the pancreas. Without injecting insulin, an Type 1 diabetic has about a year to live, tops. Once you have Type 1 diabetes, you WILL HAVE TO TAKE INSULIN FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE! THERE ARE NO EXCEPTIONS TO THIS RULE!!! Type 2 diabetes occurs when the body makes plenty of insulin but cannot use it properly due to the body's cells becoming resistant to the effect of the glucose regulating hormone. Eventually, a Type 2 diabetic might have to go on insulin, but many can regulate it by losing weight, exercising and carefully monitoring their diet. Type 1 diabetes = beta cells in pancreas are dead. No more insulin production, ever. Type 2 diabetes = plenty of insulin, body can't use it well. Are we all clear now? Good! If Ms. Berry has suddenly been able to go off of insulin, it means that her initial diagnosis was incorrect and that she has been a Type 2 diabetic all along. I wish the media would do its research before it prints idiocy like this - it does a great deal of harm to the minority of diabetics that are classified as Type 1. It is a far more serious condition that usually strikes children and teenagers, but can actually occur at any stage in life. Now, thanks to Ms. Berry's little quip, we Type 1 diabetics have to endure MORE ignorant comments and unasked for advice from people who DON'T understand the difference between the two forms of the disease. Comments like 'Gee, you can cure yourself of Type 1 diabetes! Just look at Halle Berry!" Believe me - every Type 1 diabetic in the world would love to trade places with Ms. Berry right now (personally, I'm tired of taking up to fifteen shots of insulin and pramelitide a day) but until there is a real cure for us (and it is unlikely, considering how much money the medical community and the insulin cartel make on us) WE will still have to deal with insulin pumps, tons of needles and fingersticks a day for constant blood monitoring, hypoglycemic attacks, and a lifetime that is shortened on average by fifteen years. The last thing Type 1 diabetics need is more of this stupidity spouted by the media, adding to the ignorance and discrimination we face every day. Ms. Berry, I am very happy you have managed to get off insulin - I wish you the very best of health and a happy future. However, your comments have only hurt the efforts of the Type 1 community to raise public awareness of our UNCURABLE illness and how it differs from the looming Type 2 epidemic currently underway. We can't exercise our kind of diabetes away, we can't diet our condition away and it will follow us like a stalking tiger until the day we die unless scientists can find a way to cure it. It is irresponsible of you to suggest otherwise. You should have said that you had gone from being insulin dependent to being non-insulin dependent - it would have been a far more accurate statement.

Yes, please share with our little children how it was managed? My 11 year old would LOVE to know. I wanted to just puke when I read this. Thanks alot, now people are going to be asking my CHILD why she still has Type 1 diabetes. If there were a cure or a way to "drop down to type 2" I guarantee you we would be right in line waiting for it! There is NO CURE FOR TYPE 1 DIABETES!!!!!! Shame on you.

All I can say about MS Berry beating diabetes as you say is THIS IS A LIE. If it is type 1 that she has, she can not possibly have beaten type 1 or switched to type 2. My son who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes would love to know how she could do this. There has been NO CURE yet for type 1(insulin dependent diabetes)as of yet. Please educate yourself before you print such IGNORANCE. www.jdrf.org www.childrenwithdiabetes.com