Pig cells 'may reverse diabetes'

BBC ^ | 2/20/2006 | Staff

[Randy Larsen]

Don't all women think that "All men are pigs!"

Maybe we ARE valuable after all!

[Straight Vermonter]

That is certainly the problem. Those who have gotten the transplants are, in a different way, as sick as they were before.

My wife has type 1 and it is certainly exciting to see that there are treatment options coming from so many directions.

[Conservativegreatgrandma]

I hope this is true but I'm skeptical whenever we're told a cure is at hand.

There have been very few cures for anything.

[daler]

Polio, TB and smallpox come to mind.

Other than that, I'd say you're probably right.

I don't wear a tin-foil hat, but I have pondered the financial implications of finding "cures" for everything from cancer to the common cold.

Think about it.

[Conservativegreatgrandma]

Did medicine cure polio? I don't know.

I'm not sure it would be the same type of thing as chronic diseases or terminal diseases like cancer and diabetes.

We have family members with Huntington's Disease. We would love for there to be a "cure" for that. I'm not holding my breath. I wish I were more optimistic.

[daler]

I suppose you could draw a distinction between a "cure" and a "vaccine", but polio for all intents and purposes was eradicated by the Salk vaccine.

I understand Huntington's is devastating; I'm sorry you've had to deal with it.

Isn't that what Woody Guthrie suffered from?

[Conservativegreatgrandma]

Yes. My siter's husband, father in law, brother in law, as well as many other of their relatives have died of HD. She also has to live with the pain of knowing her two sons possibly will have it.