Posted on 04/15/2009 4:25:48 PM PDT by neverdem
Researchers have used injections of patients' own stem cells to reverse the course of type 1 diabetes, reports a research team from the University of São Paulo in Brazil and Northwestern University in Chicago.
The findings, published in the current issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, exemplify the remarkable gains made by diabetes researchers, who are battling a continuously spreading disease that now affects nearly 8% of adults and children. (See the top 10 medical breakthroughs of 2008.)
The research team, led by Dr. Julio Voltarelli of the University of Sao Paulo, is the first to successfully treat type 1 diabetes patients with their own stem cells. The group first reported its initial achievement in 2007, with 15 type 1 diabetes patients who received their own stem cells and no longer needed insulin to control their blood sugar levels. In the new study, a follow-up of their previous work, Voltarelli and his colleagues detailed the same success with an additional eight patients, and also confirmed that in the majority of them, the stem cell transplant led to an appreciable repopulation of functioning insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas.
"I wouldn't use the word cure," says Dr. Richard Burt, one of the co-authors from Northwestern University. "But it appears we changed the natural history of the disease. It's the first therapy for patients that leaves them treatment-free — no insulin, no immune suppression for almost five years."
The idea behind the transplant is simple. In type I diabetes, the patient's own immune system turns on the beta cells that produce insulin, the hormone that breaks down the glucose we eat in food. Eventually, the immune cells will virtually eliminate all of the body's beta cells, and glucose levels will start to climb. Researchers believe that the trigger for...
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
adult stem cells of course
OF COURSE!
But notice how they want to blur it with “stem cells” not specifying upfront that ADULT STEM CELLS is where the progress and success is.
Ping
same with “immigration” and “healthcare” instead of illegal immigration and nationalized healthcare
Yep, noticed that right off. Stinkers.
Those references were from commercial sites selling people books about miracle cures.
No, 8% of the population do not have Type I diabetes ~ which is the focus of this story. Just doing a review of the percentages with Type I or Type II most authorities seem to put it at 5% of all diabetics have Type I, and 95% of all have Type II. Knowing that Type II may arise in 5% of our total population you can work out the rest. Or, put it this way, 5% of 5% is .05 times .05, or .25%, which gives us 750,000 or so Type I diabetics. On the other hand, there are only 13 million diagnosed diabetics of any kind in the USA. 5% of 13 million is 650,000 people.
The Time magazine article was trying to mislead you into believing there were over 24 million with Type I diabetes, or roughly 37 times as many Type I diabetics as there really are.
It is my conclusion that the Time Inc. employee who did the fact checking and the math for the story ALSO does the same sort of thing for homelessness!
Hey there codger....read this.
Adult Pancreas Stem Cells Can Make Insulin
Pig Cells 'May Reverse Diabetes'
New Applications For Cord Lining Stem Cells - Diabetes And Wound Healing
Diabetes In Mice Cured Using Non-Embryonic Sources
Diabetes Foundation Loses Its Way The Pro-Abortion Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation
Stem Cells May Help Bergen Boy Fight Diabetes
Adult Stem Cell Research Breakthrough Produces Insulin For Diabetics
Diabetes In Mice Cured Using Non-Embryonic Sources
A Stem-Cell Defection, A Congressman Educates.
Stem cell cure hope for diabetes
Cells Passed From Mother To Child May Be First Step In Developing New Treatments For Type 1 Diabetes
Pig cell transplants may treat human diabetes
Stem cells could spell end for diabetes jabs
Diabetics cured by stem-cell treatment
Adult stem cells from human cord umbilical cord blood successfully engineered to make insulin
Stem cell experiment lets diabetics forgo insulin, transplants performed on diabetics in Brazil
Adult stem repair of damaged brain, pancreas, kidney cells newly understood
I’m type II so I don’t think it would help me. But thanks!
Some type IIs eventually become insulin dependent, i.e. they can't make enough or any insulin. That's why they test for C-peptide.
Sorry I don’t keep all those things straight.
LUB
I’ve been on insulin for years.
Maybe your adult stem cells can do you a favor? I don’t doubt that adult stem cell therapy will be tried on type IIs who are insulin dependent. It’s just a matter of time & money.
I’m sure insurance companies will refuse to pay for it because it’s new.
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