You've probably seen reports of transplants offering hopes of cures for type 1 diabetes. Well I was intrigued by this news release that claimed to have discovered a cure for diabetes in rats with type 2 diabetes!
The report came from researchers at Washington University who have been working with diabetic rats.
The lead scientist, Marc Hammerman, said "What we've shown is that transplantation of pig pancreatic primordia into rats that have Type-2 diabetes normalizes the glucose tolerance," says Hammerman. He explained, "It cures the diabetes. It also reverses a component of type-2 diabetes called insulin resistance."
Apparently they didn't expect the reversal. Adult diabetics become resistant to the effects of insulin over 30 or 40 years. The pancreas of a diabetic eventually wears out, does not produce enough insulin and resists the insulin the system produces.
Dr Hammerman says the new technique could change that. "If we can extrapolate to humans with Type-2 diabetes, perhaps we will give them another 30 or 40 years before the insulin resistance recurs and overcomes the pancreas. But that's a pretty good trade."
Dr Hammerman and his colleagues are planning to test the technique in pig-to-primate transplants. Success in those studies could lead to human trials. The work was reported in the journal Transplant Immunology.
Source: Rats Cured of Diabetes
If you would like to donate financially to research into diabetes cures visit Diabetes Research Wellness Foundation read more...
One of the most difficult things for someone with diabetes is keeping an eye on your blood sugar levels.
So I was delighted when I found this website that gives you a free tool for doing just that. PlasmaGlucose.com is a free to use website where you can enter your blood sugar readings and then see them in a graphical format.
It gives you a chart of your suagr level readings and shows your average sugar level. It's ideal when you want to check how successful you are with your carbohydrate controls, which impacts on your sugar levels.
The information is stored in a private, secure area with the option to publish your results for your diabetic medical team to access.
Definitely worth checking out. If you want to see an example of how the published results look check what I did with mine at cut the carbs on my website read more...