As we’ve learned over the last several years, it isn’t just about the sugar. It’s about carbs and a healthy lifestyle.

To help understand how someone gets diabetes, here’s a visual explanation:

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What is Diabetes? A Visual Explanation

This is exciting news: scientists at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston have initiated a phase 1 clinical trial to reverse type 1 diabetes.

Scientists have used a vaccine that provides protection against tuberculosis to cure a disease the “closely resembles” Type 1 diabetes in mice.

According to the research:

“In the animal studies, a commonly used vaccine that provides protection against tuberculosis, called Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG), was used effectively to deplete the abnormal immune cells that attack and destroy the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas.”

They are recruiting people for the human trials right now.

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New Hope for Type 1 Diabetics

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Video Explanation of Diabetes

Check out this facinating discovery from Diabetes Health:

A 55-year-old woman whose pancreas was removed due to chronic pancreatitis is not without a pancreas, thanks to the ingenuity of surgeons at the Methodist Hospital in Houston. After they removed her pancreas, they extracted its islet cells and implanted them into her left forearm, creating what they call a functioning pancreas in her arm. (Transplanted islet cells are usually injected into the liver, but in this case the patient’s liver had damage that precluded its use.) Apparently the patient is recovering handily and should be armed with insulin as soon as the transplanted cells become fully functional.

A pancreas in the arm! What will they think of next? (How about a total cure?)

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New Pancreas in Woman’s Arm

The results showed that children given additional vitamin D were around 30% less likely to develop type 1 diabetes compared with those not given the supplement. And the higher and the more regular the dose, the lower was the likelihood of developing the disease, the evidence suggested.

What do you think about this one? Several logical reasons were given to back this research up…

1. There is a striking difference in the incidence of type 1 diabetes according to latitude and levels of sunlight exposure, with a child in Finland 400 times more likely to develop the disease than a child in Venezuela.

2. Pancreatic beta cells and immune cells carry receptors or docking bays for the active forms of the vitamin.

Do you buy it? Tell me your opinion, I am on the fence…

via Science daily/Eurek Alert 

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Vitamin D in childhood can help prevent diabetes later in life

Some of you might have already seen the article and read through it but for those that didn’t, I’m going to share. The story is about a Chicago first grader Lilly Jaffe who has been diabetic since she was one month old and her trials, complications and use of an insulin pump. At this point in her very young and full life Lilly does not need any insulin or pumps anymore, she takes pills to control her diabetes and is living a very active life. Um huh, I said pills!

After years of uncontrolled blood sugars and her father attending a conference, doctors discovered that Lilly had what they call “sleeping” insulin producing cells, which is marked on your insulin gene and can be stimulated by a drug that has been safely used in adults for years… sulphonylurea.

Sulphonylurea works on the beta cells of the pancreas to increase the secretion of insulin. And viola, success! Lilly now plays soccer, dances her heart out at ballet class and even has sleepovers with her girlfriends. Her father calls it a “miracle”.

via People magazine, December the 24th, 2007

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Trading In An Insulin Pump For The Drug Sulphonylurea

Insulin resistance is a condition in which the body’s cells become resistant to insulin, a hormone secreted by the pancreas that plays an essential role in regulating the carbohydrates, lipids, and proteins obtained from food.

Yes, I am talking about your belly fat. Now, before you go and get all offended, listen up. We all have it, that nasty little roll right below the ol’ belly button. Well, most of us do anyway. Researches have now discovered that the spare tire alone may not be to blame for causing metabolic syndrome. Your skeletal muscle’s may have a little something to do with it as well…

But with the help of powerful new imaging technologies, a team of Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) researchers at Yale University School of Medicine has found that insulin resistance in skeletal muscle leads to alterations in energy storage that set the stage for the metabolic syndrome.

So long story short, they are thinking that this metabolic syndrome, or pre-diabetes if you will, is really a problem with how we store energy from food. This is fairly good news because there is a simple cure to that… exercise. Now, get out there y’all and do something healthy for yourself!

via Science Daily

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Metabolic Syndrome Is Really A Problem With How We Store Energy

Retired Fire Captain, Calvin Miller of Union City, New Jersey is reporting decreased insulin doses and lower blood glucose levels within one month after his adult stem cell treatment for diabetes (type 2) , diabetes induced erectile dysfunction and peripheral artery disease in Cologne, Germany.

Mr. Calvin Miller was recently treated at the XCell-Center using adult stem cells taken from a small amount of his bone marrow. The stem cells were introduced into his pancreas using a minimally invasive catheter procedure through the right femoral artery similar to a heart catheterization.

This is the 3rd, 4th and 5th time that Mr. Miller has undergone treatment using stem cells in the past few years. All of the stem cell procedures have been for different disease process’. He has obviously had more than favorable results…

“Before scuba diving this past Sunday morning, I injected only 32% of my normal insulin dose. During the day, I ate normally – for a diabetic – without injecting any more insulin. That evening, I measured my blood sugar and I was astounded that it was only 126. A month ago, even with my full insulin doses, I never had readings below 170″

The X-cell Center treats diabetes, stroke, spinal cord injuries, ischemic heart disease, multiple sclerosis, parkinson’s and alzheimer’s. Before the end of the year the X-cell Center will publish it’s data and findings from the research data it has gathered and compare it to diabetics that have received conventional treatment.

via eMedia Wire

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New Jersey Man Completes Stem Cell Procedure With More Than Favorable Results

This happened while I was at a cookout at a friend’s house. First of all, both women were by no means tiny in stature. Second, they were shoving their faces with chips, hot dogs and hamburgers. And third, just who the heck do they think they are?

“Excuse me, I couldn’t help but overhear your comment and I am a diabetic. I am young, exercise, eat healthy and try to stay as fit as possible. The thing is, my pancreas and cells don’t realize that I am not “fat” per say, and kind of have a mind of their own. They kind of just don’t allow the insulin and insulin production in my body to work efficiently. Maybe you should research the facts before you start making very broad, ignorant generalizations!”

Well, they shut right on up! Ah…. I guess ignorance is bliss. The funny thing is, they keep eating like that and they will end up one of my cardiac patients, you know?

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Diabetics Share In Such Broad Generalizations

• Patients receiving BYETTA achieved a significant A1C reduction of 1.2% at Week 30 and 1.1% at 2.5 years¹
• Patients with a baseline A1C of >9% experienced, on average, a 2.1% reduction in A1C at 2.5 years¹

Isn’t it easier to take oral medication? Why would a type 2 diabetic want an injectable medication? The drug is very expensive, will insurance cover the cost? These are all questions that came to my mind while researching BYEETA.

BYEETA has to be used as adjunct therapy with other oral medications, like metformin. The medicine works after you eat to lower blood glucose levels by acting in harmony with your stomach, pancreas, liver and brain.

BYEETA also promotes weight loss in most of its patients. That is one side effect I would welcome!

With BYETTA, you may feel less hungry and eat less. In fact, research studies have shown that most patients lost weight. Some medicines for type 2 diabetes, such as sulfonylureas and insulin, can cause weight gain, while other drugs, such as metformin, do not affect weight.

Patients treated with BYETTA lost an average of 5.5 lb by Week 30, which further decreased to11.2 lb at 2.5 years¹

I haven’t personally seen BYEETA used in practice at the hospital that I work, which is an east coast facility. Nor have many of my RN friends at other institutions in the area. Apparently the medication is being prescribed though, I found many blogs dedicated to patients that use this medication with mixed thoughts.

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Is BYETTA The Answer For Type 2 Diabetics?