New Stem Cell Treatment, Successful In Mice, May Someday Cure Type 1 Diabetes

New Stem Cell Treatment, Successful in Mice, May Someday Cure Type 1 Diabetes

When his infant son Sam was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes two decades ago, Doug Melton made himself a promise: He would cure it. When his daughter Emma was diagnosed with the same autoimmune disease at 14, he redoubled his efforts.
Finally he can see the finish line. In a paper published Thursday in the journal Cell, Melton announces that he has created a virtually unlimited supply of the cells that are missing in people with type 1 diabetes.
By replacing these cells—and then protecting them from attack by the body's immune system—Melton, now a professor and stem cell researcher at Harvard, says someday he'll have his cure.
"I think we've shown the problem can be solved," he said.
In type 1 diabetes, which usually starts in childhood and affects as many as three million Americans, the person's immune system attacks and destroys beta cells in the pancreas. Melton used stem cells—which can turn into a wide variety of other cell types—to manufacture a new supply of these beta cells, which provide exquisitely fine-tuned responses to sugar levels in the blood.
When you eat, beta cells increase levels of insulin in your blood to process the extra sugar; when you're running on empty, the cells dial down insulin levels.
Since the 1920s, people with type 1 diabetes have been kept alive with insulin injections, though many still face nerve damage, slow wound healing, and even blindness because even the best pumps and monitors are not as effective as the body's beta cells.
The only known cure for type 1 diabetes is a beta cell transplant, which takes the cells from someone wh Continue reading

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5 Things NOT to Say to Someone With Diabetes

Whether you have type 1 or type 2 diabetes, you've probably dealt with it before: the person who says something well-meaning - but offensive - about your condition.
While diabetes is one of the most common diseases in our modern world, a fair share of people still don't know enough about it to engage in the right etiquette during conversation.
So whether you have diabetes or you know someone that does, here are five things you shouldn't say to a person with the condition:
1. "At least it's not deadly."
Sure, diabetes doesn't have the negative public connotations that come with conditions like cancer, but diabetes can, in fact, be fatal. The complications that may arise when a person has diabetes can make living with the condition a daily challenge - and out of whack blood sugar levels, high cholesterol or even the common cold can turn into life-threatening situations for some diabetics.
2. "Are you supposed to eat that?"
Diabetes means you can't eat sugar, right? Wrong. For a type 1 diabetic, especially, devouring a cupcake or a candy bar might be necessary to avoid dangerously low blood sugar levels. While type 2 diabetes patients must carefully monitor their sugar and carbohydrate intake, having others police their food habits doesn't help. Most diabetics are well aware of what and how much they can safely eat when it comes to any of their food choices.
3. "I heard _____ can cure diabetes! Have you tried it?"
Unless you have medical or health credentials that entitle you to give this type of advice, it's generally not a good idea to tell a person with diabetes about the l Continue reading

Boy with diabetes saves pennies for 4 years to get service dog

WAITSFIELD, Vermont --
Eight-year-old Aiden Heath has spent a little over four years collecting loose change with a goal in mind. And that dedication paid off this week when he finally came face-to-snout with his very own service dog, Angel.
"Aiden looked at me and said, 'This is a dream,'" his mother, Jenni Heath, told ABC News.
Aiden, of Waitsfield, Vermont, was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes four years ago. Soon after he learned about canines trained to help monitor glucose levels in people.
"They can sense it 20 minutes to 30 minutes before the blood meter actually tells you that you're low," Jenni explained.
Service dogs are expensive - each costing $15,000. But not to be discouraged, Aiden's mom told her son to save, one penny at a time.
In April, when Aiden was about $9,000 from his goal, news coverage of his story helped bring in donations from across the U.S., raising more than $20,000 almost overnight.
With the windfall, Aiden and his mom put a down payment on a dog in Nevada.
Jenni Heath said Angel, a chocolate Labrador, had been trained from April until recently and had passed all her tests. She said she and Aiden had followed Angel's progress with videos and pictures.
On Monday Angel arrived from Nevada to the Heaths' home.
"We have been so amazed by the outpouring of support," Jenni Heath said. "He is feeling the love. ... There are no words."
Read the full story from ABC News. Continue reading

Emotional Korn Frontman Jonathan Davis Shares Son’s Battle With Type 1 Diabetes

Seeing your kid go through some of life's challenges can definitely be difficult for a parent, and Korn frontman Jonathan Davis gets a little emotional when it comes to talking about his son Zeppelin and his fight with Type 1 diabetes.
Davis filmed a video for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) in which he speaks about his personal experience and learning that his son was suffering. The vocalist has also launched a campaign through RallySong in which he's offering the new Korn song 'So Unfair' and giving the opportunity for one lucky contributor and a friend to join him at his private recording studio as he records a new song.
In the video above, Davis states, "I was out on the road. My wife was calling me, saying Zeppy was really tired and just being lethargic and laying around, and something was wrong. I got home from tour, and we took him to the hospital and told them what was going on. And they started running tests and doing all these things, and they decided to check his blood sugar, just to see. I think he was, at that time, 290. And so that set off a flag for Type 1 diabetes. His glucose was high. And when that happened, that changed my life forever. I found out my son had Type 1 diabetes."
A choked up Davis continues, "It's been very hard dealing with that, because there's a lot involved. I have to constantly monitor his glucose, I have to constantly hurt him and stick him with needles, and he doesn't understand. It's a horrible disease and I really wanna do whatever I can do to make a difference to help find a cure for this. 'Cause it just doesn't af Continue reading

Statin Scam Exposed: Cholesterol Drugs Cause Rapid Aging, Brain Damage, And Diabetes

Please get anyone you love or care about off the statin drugs. They poison the liver so it does not make cholesterol. The BIG issue is that your brain is 80% cholesterol so you might as well write Alzheimer’s on the bottle another medical community caused disease !!!!
High Cholesterol?
If you want to maintain
active as you age, you
need to read this.
StopAgingNow.com
Millions of people are taking cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins to lower their cholesterol. It’s a 29 billion dollar industry that had most of us fooled completely. Doctors prescribe these statin drugs regularly against heart attack, stroke, inflammation and other health ailments. However, despite their incredible popularity, cholesterol lowering drugs failed to prevent heart attack and stroke. Instead, they can cause cancer and other serious health problems.
In the new documentary film $29 Billion Reasons to Lie About Cholesterol, Justin Smith states,
” … between 1994 and 2006 the percentage of men aged 65 to 74 with ‘high’ cholesterol decreased from 87% to 54% … Despite this, the rate of coronary heart disease for this age group stayed about the same … Other age groups have experienced an increase in the rate of heart disease as the number of people with ‘high’ cholesterol has decreased.”
Cholesterol-lowering drugs cause cancer
Well-designed studies have shown the link between cholesterol-lowering drug use and cancer.
In the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1996 stated:
All members of the two most popular classes of lipid-lowering drugs (the fibrates and the stati Continue reading