I think that a cure is possible BECAUSE of those reasons, Brian.
How much would you pay for a cure? If I said "take this pill and you'll be cured of diabetes." How much would that pill be worth to you? How much would your insurance company like that? And, the race is on...Sanofi, Novo-Nordisk and Ely Lilly want to be the company that creates that discovers this cure and is able to deliver it to the market.
Interesting you should bring this up, Mike. I asked the same question (What would YOU pay for a cure) in my very first discussion on Tu back in 1998. To be honest, I was surprised that lots of people wouldn't go to extremes (mortgage a house, take out loans, etc) to rid themselves of diabetes. I had also added a time-component to the question, i.e. spending time in a hospital for treatment away from "regular" life.
Mike,
Just for your information Sanofi Aventis licensed CureDm's "Pancreate" almost two years ago and has done nothing with it. They don't even have it listed on their webpage as a product in their pipeline. I spoke to Dr Levetan who was part of the Curedm team and she was so excited about the therapy and felt very confident it would pan out as a cure for diabetes, She was anticipating the human trials to start late 2010. Well its nearly 2012 and its nowhere to be found. Dr Faustman seems like the only legit researcher to support. At least she's running her trials and not dealing with Big Pharma who seems to keep shelving every promising therapy they get their F****G hands on.
Gary, take a look at this link (which I posted elsewhere in the this thread): http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-12-21/teva-pursues-first-type-1-diabetes-treatment-since-insulin.html
I don't know if it's the same treatment as the one you discuss or not, but it seems to have bounced around from big pharma to big pharma, until it settled in the hands of an Israeli company that appears to be pushing it forward. It's not a cure and it doesn't have a sexy name, but if I can take injections of DiaPep277 instead of insulin and not have to worry about blood sugars or constant tweaking of my doses, that would be a HUGE improvement.
Scott,
That is a different therapy. Pancreate is/was a regeneration therapy similar to "Exsulin" Ingap peptide. They were planning on pairing it up with an Immune drug like Diapep277 to achieve insulin independence with the hope that a combination therapy would do the trick. I am aware of Diapep277 but from my understanding its a therapy that targets only newly diagnosed. I still don't really understand that concept of newly diagnosed as yes they have some beta cells still functioning but how long will that last before the Immune attack does those patients in? Something like Diapep277 is supposed to help keep the attack at bay prolonging the inevitable. My hopes are still in Dr Faustman but deep down I just don't think that BCG on its own will be capable of stopping the Immune attack and also allowing our cells to regenerate enough to eliminate the need for Insulin. It would be a miracle if that was the outcome even if we needed it weekly or whatever. Either way I think Dr Faustman will eventually figure it out despite the fact I wouldn't be in shock if it ends up as a failure.
I think I like your idea of fast acting carbs. Creamy and refreshing.
I noticed that the question is cure and it refers to - what - type 1 or type 2 or both?
Type 1 one has been explored somewhat in depth and type 2 - well there is another story.
Type 1 is considered a pancreatic disease. Type 2 has to do with insulin resistance as well as liver mis behaving. It has been peddled that type 2 is also a pancreatic disease and just add more insulin or pound on the avandia /actos.
It troubles me deeply that when one looks into the matter; one sees that there are 85 per cent of diabetics are type 2 and exploding in quantity. 10 to `15 per cent are type ones.
Many of the research organizations are spending big bucks on type 1 and I assume they hope they can get double whammy and somehow cover type 2.
The exploding numbers of type 2's suggest something else.
I received report that supposedly shows that ADA pulls in 100's of millions of dollars and spends only 4 % on research.
I am told very few organizations are really chasing practical cures and approaches and most honestly admit they are driving type 1.
To me that is tragic. I see the artificial pancreas project will probably in my mind most benefit type 1 diabetes.
Until Insulin resistance, cause and reason for and better real time analysis tools are vailable to monitor a multi-organ - multi hormone human chemical plant, I doubt any rational cure will be available and hoping for a simple single silver bullit that kills vampires in a single stroke seems irrational when one considers all the aspects of diet/carbs; exercise and hormone miscues that current approaches to manage type 2 require to be worked - ie - metformin to hold liver glucose off.
You are right about the fact that a cure for T1 will be found long before a cure for T2 is even on the horizon. And you are right about multiple system failures, but the pancreas IS involved as well, so something that would restore pancreatic function is really relevant to T2 as well. A fully functioning pancreas would at least mitigate T2 symptoms, even though there are a lot of other issues that need to be addressed. So while the work on restoring or creating a new source of insulin DOES have relevance to T2; it just doesn't solve the whole problem.
Excellent response.
I do agree that pancreas has role. In fact the pre diabetes diagnosis seems most suggestive that the problem is really multi organ set whereby:
a) Pancreas ages/interfered with, genetic/environmental whereby pancreas reduces basil insulin releases a small amount as well as small reduction of the main bolus.
b) adding to fun is liver whom for some reason ups the
the glucose release during the stomach/intestine idle point.
c) the operating point of the body when gut empty is now elevated from normal and skeletal muscles need to pick up even more excess glucose and seeing increased insulin resistance that also makes matters worse.
My beef with the just add more insulin thinking is that in end does not solve problem- you just cannot keep storing more and more glucose in a finite human body with finite glucose storage that can be saturated.
There is no infinite motion/infinite glucose storage biological systems contrary to the thinking.
In my own case, yes in the end after getting IR issues resolved, the cranky age ole body did /does need some insulin boost basil/meal bolus to make up for age/degredation issues but did not resolve the glucose saturation issues that shot me up to 13.3 a1c - that took metformin doses appropriatly timed along with careful carbs/diet control and hearty exercise.
I was 26 years on extra insulin approaches - glyburide, starlix, 75/25 - 26 units and all I got for the trouble was a body rotting out, hemoraghes on eyes and kidneys failing.
Getting liver nonsense shut down paved way to get situation under far better control. Insulin approaces alone NEVER did that.
The argument is not one answer over another, this organ or that but what blended approach will provide the best answer overall and stop the rot.
Notice - I did not say cure.
It is allways wise to carefully review data and research on related medical issues - diabetes types but the present over focus on the pancreas is distracting our efforts and I believe for type 2's been taken as far as it can, its time to look into all aspects of this problem and get the dam numbers down.
All types of excellent research has been going on backed up by mri spectography, bariatric surgery, starvation diets, lap band, liver - metformin research
has been done yet sits going nowhere like the finds from the Indiana Jones movie nailed into a box and shoved into a warehouse out of sight and type 2's rot out like always in ever increasing numbers.
I was diagnosed with T2 in 1993, read an article in 1998 in The Glade an Archery magazine, and changed my diet to low carb high fat. My BG and A1c have been in the normal range ever since. And no pills!!
I have just found a new site at www.curediabeteswithdiet.org, which I think is by the man who cured my T2 fifteen years ago. I can recommend it.
I asked my doctor, if my BG and A1C are always normal, am I diabetic? All he said was Thats an interesting question!!!
I don’t think I can be now. My latest A1c was 5.4 for example.
The reason I have posted this here is that there are also benefits for T1