Did Chinese Scientists just Cure Diabetes?

I know we’re never supposed to use the word ‘cure’ for anything, courtesy of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Trouble is, China is not under the control of the FDA.

Regardless of what wording we use, this treatment sounds amazing.

We need to start with what we mean by curing. And what we mean by diabetes.

By curing I mean the patient stabilized her blood sugar without insulin a couple months after the treatment. By diabetes, I mean Type I diabetes.

Yes you read that right. Many of you know people have been able to put their type II diabetes into remission by eating a very low-carb ketogenic or carnivore diet.

Many people have been able to control their type I diabetes with the same diets, but not put it into remission. Definitely not cure it. That’s because type I diabetics have a pancreas that is unable to produce insulin. They are pretty much condemned to a life of insulin injections.

Maybe until now.

Over a year ago, Chinese scientists were able to cure a 25 year-old lady’s type 1 diabetes using stem cell transplants. The surgery lasted only about a half hour. Two and a half months after the surgery, she had normalized blood sugar 98% of the time and did not need any insulin.

There were previous attempts at curing type 1 people by transplanting islet cells (cells that produce insulin) from a donor’s pancreas to the diabetic pancreas. The trouble was there was a risk of rejection.

These scientists took pluripotent (stem) cells from the patient’s own adipose tissue (body fat) and programmed the cells to become islet cells using some ‘small molecule chemicals’. Since the stem cells were from the lady’s own body, there was little to no chance of rejection.

The patient previously had large blood sugar swings and hypoglycemic episodes. Everything has been normal with no insulin for over a year now.

Currently about 140 million in China have diabetes, with about 40 million needing insulin for the rest of their lives. Can you imagine what an amazing breakthrough this is?

Yet hardly anyone has heard of it. Wonder why?

Maybe you heard of Presidents Joe Biden and Donald Trump arguing back and forth about who was responsible for capping the price of insulin at $35. That’s for people with Medicare or insurance.

Insulin has been going up in price for the last 20 years. Recently uninsured people have been looking at prices up to $275/vial.

Can you imagine what curing people of their need for insulin will do to the profitability of the three largest insulin manufacturers Novo Nordisk, Sanofi and Eli Lilly?

Curing diabetes should be worldwide news in my opinion. These scientists should receive the Nobel prize if their surgery plays out and can be widely accepted. Not only for diabetes, but for all the other chronic diseases that manifest as a result of being diabetic.

So let’s share their remarkable achievement. And let’s celebrate innovations like these in healthcare throughout the world. Regardless of the hit to big company’s profits.