I want to know if there is a connection between PKU and Diabetes Type 1.?

My 38 year old sister has PKU and was on a strict diet until 18. She went back on the diet last year following positive research from the internet. My 18 year old daughter has recently been diagnosed with diabetes type 1. She is unusual. She has negative antibodies and had hypos for 2 weeks off insulin. She has been off insulin for 7 weeks and her blood is just starting to rise in the evening although has had a few hypos recently. She was tested for addisons disease and this was negative. I am curious as to whether there is a medical connection between diabetes and PKU.

no, not really, type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disorder, while pku is a metabolic problem

I did a detailed university level research paper/project on PKU, from what I understand there is no direct connection. Unless they both run in the family, both the diseases have a genetic basis.

With diabetes you can't process sugar, with PKU you can't process protein (phenylalanine to be exact).

I am unclear as to what you are asking about your daughter, does she also have PKU?
If she does have both (or if your sister does have both) then she has to be careful taking sugar-substitutes, such as Splenda and NutraSweet. . because they are made from the protein phenylalanine (which is extremely harmful for people with PKU).



Oh and this person has both diabetes type 1 and PKU, maybe talk to him/her.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/?qid=1...




*********
Kali, if you think about it again it doesn't make sense, if you eat lots of sugar for your energy and develop diabetes that's type 2 not type 1. . .

my son has pku - alot of his snacks etc are sugar based (for carbs/energy..) factually there is no true link to say if you have pku you will get diabetes , but theoretically it makes sense if it did.
in this instance I'd say its unrelated.

...thats right i got them mixed up, that person is right!

Lots of info here.