Some cases of diabetes may not respond as well to insulin treatment, as it does with other cases. Currently there is some treatment, which suggests a method for reducing the symptoms of diabetes and dependence on insulin.
People who have diabetes are unable to produce their own insulin, and thus need to inject insulin in order to maintain healthy blood sugar levels in the body. For those who have Type 1 diabetes, insulin is actually destroyed by their body. Because of this horrible disease many people die prematurely and thus a cure for diabetes is desperately needed.
Insulin is carried in cells called islets, and medical studies wanted to look into whether donor islets might provide a cure for diabetes. For this purpose, the first study on islet transplantation evaluated only two patients in New Zealand.
The islets used were from a porcine donor. The original results suggested the possibility of doing more tests on islet transplantation. Unfortunately neither of the participants in the first test was able to completely end dependence on insulin. Thus the test did not suggest a cure for diabetes. However, the transplanted islets were less than the body would normally require, so islet transplantation still remained a possible cure for diabetes.
In 28 September 2006, The New England Journal of Medicine published the results of a more comprehensive study on the islet "cure" for diabetes. In this study islets were transplanted from deceased human donors, and the tests were conducted in several locations around the world on 36 patients.
In this test, which is still a small sampling of patients, after one year, 44% of patients were living independently of insulin. 28% of the participants had partially functioning islets and were able to reduce their insulin intake. Unfortunately 28% had no live graft islets at the end of one year.
The study continued for a year past this point with disappointing results. Within two years 76% of the study group required insulin. Only five out of the initial 36 people who were tested were able to remain independent of insulin at the two-year mark.
Islet transplantation remains a treatment, not a cure, for those with Type 1 diabetes; and, unless scientists can recalculate the number of islets transplanted and make adjustments that would allow a greater amount of participants to become independent of insulin it will remain just that. No doubt, research will continue to progress along these lines, with perhaps greater numbers participating in such testing. Medical researchers also continue to examine other possible methods like pancreas transplantation that might ultimately provide a cure for diabetes.
Julia Hanf author of the book How To Play The Diabetes Diet Game And Win. With this proven system you to can lower your blood sugar level and retake control of your health and your life.Through a real life crisis Julia figured out how to live diabetes free. Visit Your Diabetes Cure. http://www.yourdiabetescure.com/Cure_For_Diabetes/Cure_For_Diabetes.html
Julia Hanf is the author of the book How To Play the Diabetes Diet Game and Win
