Stem Cell Research Offers Hope On Type 1 Diabetes

Stem cell research offers hope on type 1 diabetes

When his two children were stricken with type 1 diabetes, Harvard stem cell scientist Douglas Melton says, he did what any father would want to do: He set out to cure the disease.
After 15 years of effort, including some false starts and regulatory hurdles, Melton has taken a major step toward that goal.
In a paper published in the journal Cell on Thursday, he reported a step-by-step procedure that starts with stem cells and results in hundreds of millions of the precious pancreatic cells that secrete the hormone insulin, keeping blood sugar levels in balance. It is the lack of insulin produced by those cells, called beta cells, that lies at the root of type 1 diabetes.
Ultimately, the hope is those cells could be transplanted into diabetes patients and allow them to create insulin naturally, creating a paradigm shift in treating a disease currently kept in check by insulin injections.
Melton cautions that the work is still years from being tested in patients and many challenges, scientific and practical, remain. But he is gratified to have reached this point and even more motivated to continue, so as not to disappoint the millions of people who suffer from type 1 diabetes, which is usually diagnosed in children and young adults.
“We’re tired of curing mice,” Melton said in an interview. “Most patients are sick of hearing that something’s just around the corner; I’m sick of thinking things are just around the corner. But I do believe in the big picture.”
Melton hopes the cells could be ready to be tested in people in a few years. Already, cells are being trans Continue reading

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What Everyone With Diabetes Wishes You Knew

I do my best to keep my story positive. I am a positive person day in and day out, but I can’t help but wish that people knew certain things about my disease without me having to teach them or without me having to help them understand. Although I love educating others, it begins to feel as though no one around me wants to hear it.
When I have a few bad days, I want to hide. I want to scream at my body. I want to throw it away. I ask myself, “Why? Why did this happen to me?”
But then I stop and remember that it happened to me because I can handle it and because I was meant to teach others about it.
I wish people could see the battle that I am fighting, some days more than others.
I wish people could see the numbers that follow me around all day.
I wish people could feel a high blood sugar.
I wish people could feel a low blood sugar (hypoglycemics don’t count).
SEE ALSO: 15 Different Reactions You Get When You Have Type One Diabetes
I wish people could see me struggling to solve this disease.
I wish people knew that my diabetes is not someone else’s diabetes.
I wish people knew that Type 1 Diabetes is not Type 2 Diabetes.
I wish people knew that thousands of people are struggling with this disease around the world and some of them don’t have the resources to survive.
I wish people knew how invasive this disease is between the finger pricks, the pump sites, the sensor sites and the syringe holes left in my body.
I wish people knew that I can eat that cookie.
I wish people knew that I can eat two cookies if my heart desires it.
I wish people knew that I am constantl Continue reading

Juice That Reverse Type 2 Diabetes in 1 Week

Try this juice recipes and reverse your Type 2 diabetes within a week. When combined with the Death to Diabetes plant-based Super Meal protocol, these juices are even more powerful.
For optimal results avoid eating pasta, rice, potatoes, corn, and processed foods that contain flour, wheat, gluten, sugar, corn syrup, and partially hydrogenated types of oil (trans fats).
Ingredients:
3 handfuls of spinach
2 celery stalks, use the leaves as well
1 carrot
1 green apple
1 cucumber, optional
Preparation:
Clean and peel both apple and carrot, and do not forget to remove the apple seeds. Juice them together with the spinach and celery.
Note: Carrots are rich in potassium, known to balance high sodium levels often associated with high blood pressure and hypertension. Carrots regulates blood and helps in treating different vision problems in diabetics.
Spinach is high in calcium, beta-carotene, vitamins A and C, and thus provides a wide range of health benefits. Celery contains potassium and magnesium, minerals that are believed to be essential in preventing and treating high blood pressure. Green apples are rich in mallic acid, effective in lowering blood sugar levels.
Brussels Sprouts And String Bean Juice
Ingredients:
10-12 Brussels sprouts
2 cups string beans
1 cucumber, optional
1 lemon, peeled
Preparation:
Juice the Brussels sprouts, then the string beans, and finally, the lemon. Stir well.
Note: Brussels sprouts and string beans are rich in minerals, and energy obtained through the creation of vitamin B6. They are also an excellent source of insulin.
Spinach, Celery And Parsle Continue reading

Blood Pressure Drug Verapamil May Reverse Type 1 Diabetes; Human Trials To Begin Next Year

It’s really expensive for pharmaceutical companies to develop a single new drug. According to Forbes, it can cost anywhere from $1.3 billion to $5 billion. Because of this, it makes drug companies very happy when they discover one of their drugs can be used for other health conditions — after all, more people treated means more money in executive’s pockets. Well, a case like this was just discovered. Researchers from the University of Alabama, Birmingham, found that the common blood pressure drug verapamil completely reversed type 1 diabetes in mice, and they expect to test the drug on humans next year.
Type 1 diabetes is the less-common form of the disease, comprising only five percent of those diagnosed with diabetes, and mostly appearing in kids and young adults. Nevertheless, it’s just as serious. Patients’ bodies are unable to produce insulin, cells can’t get energy, and the blood is overcome with sugar. As its sugar levels increase, the researchers found, so do levels of a protein called TXNIP. It turns out that this protein also kills the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas known as beta cells — the higher their levels, the more beta cells are killed. Thus, diabetes progresses.
This is where verapamil comes in. The drug is normally used to treat blood pressure and irregular heartbeats by relaxing blood vessels and increasing blood and oxygen to the heart, but it has also been found to reduce levels of TXNIP in beta cells. In doing so, insulin production can restart, and diabetes reverses. “We… know that treatment definitely creates an environmen Continue reading

Stanford’s Robert Sapolsky Demystifies Depression, Which, Like Diabetes, Is Rooted in Biology

We know that depression affects people from all walks of life. Rich. Poor. Celebs. Ordinary Joes. Young. Old. But, somehow after the death of Robin Williams, there's a renewed focus on depression, and my mind turned immediately to a lecture we featured on the site way back in 2009. The lecture is by Robert Sapolsky, a Stanford biologist, who has a talent for making scientific subjects publicly accessible. A recipient of the MacArthur genius grant, Sapolsky notes that depression --- currently the 4th greatest cause of disability worldwide, and soon the 2nd -- is deeply biological. Depression is rooted in biology, much as is, say, diabetes. As the lecture unfolds, you will see how depression changes the body. When depressed, our brains function differently while sleeping, our stress response goes way up 24/7, our biochemistry levels change, etc. You will see that biology is at work.
Sapolsky is one compelling teacher. So you might not want to miss his Stanford course, Introduction to Human Biology. It's equally worth your time. You can always find it housed in our collection 1,300 Free Online Courses from Top Universities.
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