Diabetes cures : Is this simple operation a cure for type 1 diabetes
Part 1 is available here
This is for my brothers and sisters who are type 1 diabetics whose pancreas have failed to work.
It is so simple that it seems surreal. Can a cure be this simple? Diabetes is becoming as prevalent as the common cold and I envision a day when a diabetes cure becomes available and over the counter as easily as cold medicine. Untill that day happens however we are left with visions of whats here and what is yet to come.
Scottish doctors are using donated pancreas to harvest insulin producing Inset cells and inject them into type 1 diabetics and thus shift them away from daily insulin dependency.
Now this is pioneering surgery and it has just been launched but I am sure it is excellent news for diabetics world wide especially if this procedure can become available locally and cheaply.
While the news did not go as far as calling this a cure for diabetes I am left to interject on the notion that it is what it is, since it solves our main fundamental issue.
Diabetes by definition is a disease that afflict the pancreas to prevent the creation of insulin and this operation will give you back that ability.
Now this procedure targets only type 1 diabetics whose pancreas has failed as opposed to type 2 whose bodies have a resistance to insulin so we are talking about two different scenarios but if the breakthrough procedure works as it is intended, it means relief for a lot more type 1 diabetics who have to rely on pumps and constant insulin injections.
As usual costs for this procedure have not been fully quantified, for this to work it requires liver and organ donations. Organ availability will always have to be an issue as it is at present with other tissues but we already have the donor registry infrastructure in place then after that it is simply an outpatient procedure with local anesthesia.
So is this the proverbial diabetes cure for type 1 diabetics, I will let you be the judge of that.
Part 1 is available here
Tomorrow we will tackle the more serious of operations like gastric bypass and organ transplants as cures for diabetes please join us in that discussion as well
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This process is another variation of islet cell transplantation that has been in clinical trial testing for more than 5 years. It has two serious limitations. 1. There are far too insufficient donor pancreases to harvest enough islet cells for people who need them. 2. (this is the big one) At this time, anyone who receives these islet cell transplants has to take immunosuppression drugs for the rest of their lives. Even taking immunosuppression; there is a very high failure rate for the transplanted islet cells over time. Immunosuppression drastically increases many kinds of cancer risks. Not to rain on anyone’s parade; but we aren’t there yet.
The lesser of two evils perhaps. Even with a normal Insulin regiment, long term complications are still very much possible. so would one choose immune suppressants over Insulin? In the follow up to the series I am highlighting the story of the Oregon woman who did get both kidney and pancreas transplant and she says for her she would take the suppressants over the diabetes type 1 life she had before that.