No, you cannot prevent or reverse type 1 diabetes. This is an autoimmune condition that requires lifelong management after diagnosis. There is no cure at this time.

Type 1 diabetes is a chronic condition affecting your body’s ability to use insulin, a hormone made in your pancreas that allows glucose (sugar) to enter your cells for energy.

You can manage type 1 diabetes by monitoring blood sugars, taking insulin, making healthy food choices, engaging in physical activity, and taking care of many other health issues.

No cure for type 1 diabetes currently exists, but research continues on many fronts about the causes of type 1 diabetes and how it could eventually be cured.

You may have heard about “reversing diabetes.”

This phrase is tied to prediabetes and type 2 diabetes, which are not autoimmune conditions and are tied to other risk factors, including lifestyle habits.

While it’s possible to manage prediabetes and type 2 diabetes to the point of reversing symptoms, this is not the same for type 1 diabetes.

That is based on what type 1 diabetes is all about, how and why it develops, and how people with this condition must manage it.

What causes type 1 diabetes?

This is a big question as it relates to curing T1D. The answers aren’t fully understood.

The cells in your body use glucose from the foods you eat as a source of energy. If you have type 1 diabetes, though, your insulin-producing beta cells are destroyed for some unknown reason. This means they no longer make enough insulin to process the glucose in your blood.

As a result, that requires daily management and insulin therapy. You can read more about type 1 diabetes here.

Current research into type 1 diabetes is wide-ranging, with many different focuses across the world.

But this 2021 research breaks it down into three major categories.

Cell-based insulin

This approach has to do with getting your body to produce enough insulin internally.

Islet transplantation is one way to achieve this.

This method uses functioning pancreatic cells from a donor. Current research, such as this 2019 review, shows that 1 in 3 people have no need for insulin injections 2 years after an islet transplant procedure.

Other cell-based approaches include turning other types of pancreatic cells into insulin producers and getting your body to regenerate beta cells. As discussed in a 2021 review, this research sometimes includes the use of stem cells.

Beta cell protection

Another research area aims to protect your existing beta cells.

One 2019 study focused on people who had not received a diagnosis of type 1 diabetes but were at high risk of developing the condition. This study found that monoclonal antibody treatment was successful at delaying the onset of diabetes.

Insulin therapy

This is a controversial topic, as many believe this is more of a “functional cure” than an actual cure for everyone with type 1 diabetes.

Typical diabetes management includes daily insulin replacement with injections or sometimes insulin pumps. This is called exogenous insulin, or insulin from outside the body.

Research into insulin replacement usually focuses on improving treatment rather than curing type 1 diabetes. However, the quality-of-life improvements it can offer are significant.

Some of the key focuses in this area include:

  • artificial pancreas systems and technology that automatically monitor glucose levels and respond to changes as they materialize, using algorithms to help manage diabetes without human input
  • future insulins that might automatically respond to glucose changes in your body (aka smart insulin)

For as long as there has been research to cure diabetes, there has been talk of a type 1 diabetes cure.

“In 5 years!” has been the running theme for a long time, from before the “decade of the cure” in the 1990s to modern times in the 2000s, 2010s, and into the 2020s.

But despite all the ongoing research and the leaps and bounds those in the diabetes science space have made, a cure remains elusive.

Sometimes, people falsely claim to have discovered cures for diabetes. This is just not true.

According to the Federal Trade Commission, these claims usually involve a scheme to sell you something. This could include marketing materials (like books and presentations), pills, supplements, or unproven procedures.

Perhaps the most common claims are those about curing diabetes with a specific diet.

The biggest challenge to curing type 1 diabetes is that the cause of the condition is still unclear.

Genetic and environmental factors might play a role. This 2021 research review points out that researchers do not fully understand why the immune system attacks and destroys beta cells.

If the cells under attack are healthy beta cells, the immune system may make mistakes and misrecognize them.

On the other hand, it could be that the beta cells are somehow dysfunctional, and the immune system is doing its job by destroying them.

While no cure for type 1 diabetes exists today, there is reason to be hopeful that one may one day be found. This is an active area of research, and scientists are exploring many avenues to treat this condition.

Until more widely effective treatments are found, be aware of false claims of a cure. Work together with a trusted doctor to manage your diabetes in a way that works for you.