Treatment during the disease's early stages

People with type 1 diabetes must take daily insulin injections, since they produce little or none on their own. Insulin is a vital hormone that helps your body convert food into energy. Without it, glucose builds up to intolerable levels in the bloodstream; untreated, patients die.

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But in the early stages, shortly after diagnosis, many patients experience a "honeymoon period" during which insulin needs are minimal; some people can actually maintain normal or near-normal blood glucose taking little or no insulin. This occurs because at this point in the disease's progression, a small percentage of the body's insulin-producing cells are still in operation. The disease may even appear to go away, since symptoms may emerge when the patient has an illness, then subside along with the illness as insulin needs decrease.

But the process that has destroyed most of the insulin-producing cells will ultimately destroy the remaining cells.