Can Oral Insulin Prevent Diabetes?

Kendra James, RN — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 22:16:37 +0000

There is a trial being conducted at 14 medical centers around the US. Researchers are testing oral insulin to see if it can prevent type 1 diabetes in people at risk for the disease.

An earlier trial suggested that oral insulin might delay type 1 diabetes for about four years in some people with islet cell autoantibodies in their blood. Some scientists think that introducing insulin via the digestive tract induces tolerance, which is a quieting of the immune system.

Previous trials like this suggested that oral insulin could delay the onset of type 1 diabetes for a few years. What do you think? Would you want to be one of the “experimental” patients in a study like this? Do you think that type 1 diabetes will ever be preventable? I can only hope so!