Hope For The Future – Diabetes Research
As diabetes research continues, scientists have looked at various options ranging from the transplantation of islet cells to cure type 1 (juvenile) diabetes to stem-cell research. This article takes a brief look at current diabetes research of interest to diabetes sufferers.
The Pancreas – An Overview
To understand diabetes, one must first have a basic understanding of the anatomy and functions of the cells involved, starting with the pancreas. The pancreas is a part of the endocrine system, which is basically defined as a system of glands that release hormones as chemical messengers that regulate the body’s various functions.
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... will be used for diabetes drug treatment. For use over night or other long periods then long acting insulin will be used. If people are at risk of dropping into a diabetic coma because of ...
The Role Of Diabetes Drug Treatments
Research And Treatments
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... measuring diabetes blood sugar levels. One may need to place a small amount of blood on a strip and place the strip into a device that comes along with the testing kit and thirty seconds or more later; it will display blood glucose levels. The best values for blood sugar levels would be four to seven millimoles per liter prior to taking meals and less than ten millimoles per liter, 90 minutes after having had a meal. ...
Diabetes Blood Sugar Level: A Need To Control It
There have been short-term success in this area, but the long-term outcome seems poor for most patients at the moment. The majority of transplants appear to fail and according to a 2006 study, it seems that only 14% of patients remained free of the need for continued insulin injections. There have also been pancreatic transplants in which the entire organ is used.
However, the fact remains that with foreign tissue in the body, the patient must take anti-rejection medications for the rest of their lives. It’s basically a trade-off that replaces shots with pills, and anti-rejection medications can lead to a host of other problems, including weight-gain.
Another more promising approach to diabetes research is stem-cell transplantation. Stem cells are undifferentiated embryonic cells that can basically develop into any other cell in the body under the right conditions. Scientists and doctors may eventually be able to successfully stimulate stem cells to grow into beta cells that will be accepted by the body without need for anti-rejection medications.
Research unrelated to diabetes has proven (at least in the lab) that it’s possible to make functioning heart cells and nerve cells already. There have even been stem-cell transplants to treat spinal injuries, not in the United States due to tight regulations, but in foreign countries that have shown promise. In summary, there is hope for the future, and continued diabetes research may one day lead to a cure.