Posted on 12/15/2006 8:44:37 AM PST by kellynla
In a discovery that has stunned even those behind it, scientists at a Toronto hospital say they have proof the body's nervous system helps trigger diabetes, opening the door to a potential near-cure of the disease that affects millions of Canadians.
Diabetic mice became healthy virtually overnight after researchers injected a substance to counteract the effect of malfunctioning pain neurons in the pancreas.
"I couldn't believe it," said Dr. Michael Salter, a pain expert at the Hospital for Sick Children and one of the scientists. "Mice with diabetes suddenly didn't have diabetes any more."
The researchers caution they have yet to confirm their findings in people, but say they expect results from human studies within a year or so. Any treatment that may emerge to help at least some patients would likely be years away from hitting the market.
But the excitement of the team from Sick Kids, whose work is being published today in the journal Cell, is almost palpable.
"I've never seen anything like it," said Dr. Hans Michael Dosch, an immunologist at the hospital and a leader of the studies. "In my career, this is unique."
Their conclusions upset conventional wisdom that Type 1 diabetes, the most serious form of the illness that typically first appears in childhood, was solely caused by auto-immune responses -- the body's immune system turning on itself.
They also conclude that there are far more similarities than previously thought between Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, and that nerves likely play a role in other chronic inflammatory conditions, such as asthma and Crohn's disease.
The "paradigm-changing" study opens "a novel, exciting door to address one of the diseases with large societal impact," said Dr. Christian Stohler, a leading U.S. pain specialist and dean of dentistry at the University of Maryland, who has reviewed the work.
"The treatment and diagnosis of neuropathic diseases is poised to take a dramatic leap forward because of the impressive research."
About two million Canadians suffer from diabetes, 10% of them with Type 1, contributing to 41,000 deaths a year.
Insulin replacement therapy is the only treatment of Type 1, and cannot prevent many of the side effects, from heart attacks to kidney failure.
In Type 1 diabetes, the pancreas does not produce enough insulin to shift glucose into the cells that need it. In Type 2 diabetes, the insulin that is produced is not used effectively -- something called insulin resistance -- also resulting in poor absorption of glucose.
The problems stem partly from inflammation -- and eventual death -- of insulin-producing islet cells in the pancreas.
Dr. Dosch had concluded in a 1999 paper that there were surprising similarities between diabetes and multiple sclerosis, a central nervous system disease. His interest was also piqued by the presence around the insulin-producing islets of an "enormous" number of nerves, pain neurons primarily used to signal the brain that tissue has been damaged.
Suspecting a link between the nerves and diabetes, he and Dr. Salter used an old experimental trick -- injecting capsaicin, the active ingredient in hot chili peppers, to kill the pancreatic sensory nerves in mice that had an equivalent of Type 1 diabetes.
"Then we had the biggest shock of our lives," Dr. Dosch said. Almost immediately, the islets began producing insulin normally "It was a shock ? really out of left field, because nothing in the literature was saying anything about this."
It turns out the nerves secrete neuropeptides that are instrumental in the proper functioning of the islets. Further study by the team, which also involved the University of Calgary and the Jackson Laboratory in Maine, found that the nerves in diabetic mice were releasing too little of the neuropeptides, resulting in a "vicious cycle" of stress on the islets.
So next they injected the neuropeptide "substance P" in the pancreases of diabetic mice, a demanding task given the tiny size of the rodent organs. The results were dramatic.
The islet inflammation cleared up and the diabetes was gone. Some have remained in that state for as long as four months, with just one injection.
They also discovered that their treatments curbed the insulin resistance that is the hallmark of Type 2 diabetes, and that insulin resistance is a major factor in Type 1 diabetes, suggesting the two illnesses are quite similar.
While pain scientists have been receptive to the research, immunologists have voiced skepticism at the idea of the nervous system playing such a major role in the disease. Editors of Cell put the Toronto researchers through vigorous review to prove the validity of their conclusions, though an editorial in the publication gives a positive review of the work.
"It will no doubt cause a great deal of consternation," said Dr. Salter about his paper.
The researchers are now setting out to confirm that the connection between sensory nerves and diabetes holds true in humans. If it does, they will see if their treatments have the same effects on people as they did on mice.
Nothing is for sure, but "there is a great deal of promise," Dr. Salter said.
Diabetes is a multi-billion dollar business. There's a lot of money in telling people they can eat whatever they want, so long as they keep buying insurance-facilitated consumables.
That's part of the "control side" of all of this ~ to reduce the spikes.
Now, does simply eating it kick your pancreas back into service?
Other than numbing your butt, I'm not sure there's a toxic limit on eating them so maybe I'll tray half a bushel in the next day or two to find out.
And far too often,they had more than one of those things.
You'll hear Michael J. Fox telling us how dangerous capsaicin is ~ a regular old "risky scheme" with "risky substances".
At the moment all we know is these guys injected capsaicin directly into the pancreas.
Not sure many folks will be able to stand that ~ so whoever comes up with time-release capsules injected into the bloodstream may find a market.
To heck w/that - I want a big plate of spaghetti and meat sauce! Lord, I miss that stuff...
Seriously, this is amazing news if it works out for humans. My endo is the head of a diabetes center at a major university. She says there are big advances in the works - Byetta, fondly known as lizard spit, a non-insulin med that helps w/blood sugar and weight, was just the beginning.
It needs more investigation, of course, but don't jump the gun on the idea that it won't work for you.
My doctor suggested that I was "pre-diabetic" over ten years ago due to an abnormal glucose tolerance test. At that time I read up in order to know what might be in store.
At that time the thinking seemed to be that proper control of blood sugar levels would eliminate the symptoms.
Unfortunately, the study found that virtually all diabetics were "out of control", even those who were most diligent and disciplined. The problem seems to be that the high blood sugar levels which occur are almost symptomless. Too much insulin can cause immediate life-threatening effects. Too little can go undetected.
At the time of my reading, much hope was being expressed for insulin pumps, but at the time the dosage would still have to be set based on too infrequent measures of blood sugar and anticipation of meals. If the technology has advanced since then so that the pumps could be driven off of "real time" blood sugar monitoring, then I think that they might be quite effective.
Another problem I vaguely recall had to do with the fact that the insulin supplied for diabetics might have effects other than what one's own insulin would have. Perhaps this was related to how the insulin was created, whether from scratch in a factory, or harvested from animals. I don't know what the state of that is now.
I have copied Freeper toast, who works at a company which makes insulin pumps for possible updates on the "state-of-the-art".
There is a page on diabetes & the MP Diabetes . Be aware of when the posts were made on this page. The first post is a year and a half old, noting that there are no folks using the MP for diabetes. That is no longer true (though I might be confusing type 1 and type 2).
Sorry about the bad link. I tested these.
-- Chris
I've been taking it since it came out. Really helped my numbers and I can tell the difference when I don't take it due to travel or whatever. It works by delaying the absorption of food and glucose, evening out your post-meal BGs.
You take it 2x a day, before breakfast and dinner. It's a pre-measured injectable pen. No muss, no fuss. Some people have naussea, but I didn't have any until moving to the 10mg dose, and then only for a day or so. My mother tried it, but couldn't get past the nausea. Different strokes.
I've lost weight, am able to manage my appetite better, and there isn't any reeling back and forth w/the hunger like on insulin. I also stick to a lower carb diet (not as low as Atkins, but way lower than the ADA recommends. I can eat a bit more carb w/Byetta than before, but you don't want to get stupid about it. : )
While I'm not ready to celebrate with sugared soft drinks yet, this is still a big step, if for no other reason that it opens up further research avenues into the pancreatic/CNS relationship.
Praise the Lord!
Keep Control out there.
Cinnamon is good for 50 points. Following a strict diet of meat and fat (with a little bit of fiber of course), you should be able to stay within 100 and 160 almost all the time and end up with an A1C reading of 6.2
I always conjure up the impression in my mind of the 200 MPG carbureter.
So many cures that start out sounding good, that are never heard of again, unless they are made of snake oil.
So Sorry, at heart I must be a cynic.
Careful. These foods that cause a burning sensation inthe mouth have been found to cause cancer -- IIRC correctly, of the mouth, esophagus, and stomach. They cause chemical burns, i.e. they inflict damage on cells, which promotes cancer via genetic changes in the cells. That pain is your body's very wise natural warning system telling you not to eat this. The cancer effect is minimal to nonexistent in people who eat these foods occasionally, but if people go out and make a point of eating lots of them regularly, or of taking capsules of red pepper to bypass the mouth pain, there's a real risk. Plus there's zero evidence that ingesting this orally would have any effect on the pancreas and/or insulin sensitivity -- the stuff would almost certainly digested to an inactive state long before its remnants entered the bloodstream and travelled to the pancreas.
So far he's had two bypass surgeries, has one stent procedure and has severe neuropathy in both legs as well as something that keeps causing terrible itching on his back. He follows a healthy diet and keeps his diabetes in control, but still has all these problems.
I actually work for another division but here is a link for the current "state-of-the-art" insulin pump and continuous monitor.
http://www.minimed.com/professionals/realtime/index.html
That pain is your body's very wise natural warning system telling you not to eat this.
Oh? I thought that capsaicin directly stimulated pain receptors, causing the nerves to respond as though cell damage had occurred, but without actual damage. I do know that if what you say is true, the prescription capsicum creams used to treat conditions such as shingles ought to be taken off the market.
Are there reputable studies that correlate capsicum intake with cancer risk?
We decided to give it a try and the next blood test his glucose numbers were high normal, but normal nonetheless. The next test the glucose was still in the higher normal range.
He used to wake up with a headache in the mornings caused from no food during the evening, now he takes cinnamon at bedtime and seldom wakes with a glucose headache. If he fails to take it, he will, invariably, have the headache in the a.m.
By keeping the blood sugar levels more stable and not yo-yo ing the trigliceride levels have dropped without medication to a good level of 79.
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