Berry's Miracle Cure Probably Misdiagnosis, Say Docs

Before she was diagnosed and after becoming ill on the set, she told the paper, she slipped into a diabetic coma for a week.

"She was diagnosed in her early 20s, and at that age it's sometimes difficult to know at the beginning if it's Type 1 or 2," said Dr. Ronald Kahn, director of the Joslin Diabetes Center at Harvard.

"Because she is thin and healthy, her physician initially probably thought that she had Type 1, though in African-Americans there is an increased risk for Type 2. The diagnosis wasn't necessarily a bait and switch, but it might have just been a matter of her physician's getting a better handle on the kind of diabetes she had," he said.

"Physicians are always asked to make the call one way or other. He probably said Type 1 at the time, but was not 100 percent certain. Some people with borderline diagnoses will joke that they have Type 1½," he said.

Berry's physician might not have been the only one confused about the status of the actor's condition. In a December 2005 Daily Mail article about Berry and her diabetes, the paper said she had Type 2. In a 2006 New York Times article, the Times said she had Type 1.

Berry is four months pregnant. Though not referring to Berry's condition specifically, Kaufman said women with Type 1 need to be particularly careful about their insulin levels when pregnant.

"There is a heightened risk for many women while pregnant. The goal of pregnancy is to carefully manage insulin," . Kaufman said.

The American Diabetes Association was also reluctant to comment directly on Berry's condition but warned that people taking insulin should not stop treatment without first consulting their doctors.

"We don't want people with Type 1 to hear about this and stop taking their insulin," said Diane Tuncer, the association's director of communications.

"After hearing one story about a celebrity, people shouldn't begin questioning their treatment. No one should stop treatment without consulting their physician," she said.

Berry's publicist, Meredith O'Sullivan, refused to comment on Berry's reported remarks, saying only that "any medical choice that is made regarding her treatment is between Berry and her doctors."