Berry Beating Diabetes - Comments and Message Board

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!

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.

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!!!!

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

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.

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.....

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.

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..........

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.

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.

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.

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??

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.

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.