Potential Surgical Treatment for Type II Diabetes
Adult onset diabetes may be treatable with a radical surgery used to treat morbidly obese patients. From the story in the Telegraph:
Gastric bypass surgery could be the latest tool in the fight against Type 2 diabetes, which is normally caused by obesity. One in four people in the UK is currently overweight and as the obesity problem grows experts are warning that there will be an explosion in diseases such as Type 2 diabetes. There are already two million sufferers in the UK.Shortening the bowel means the body has less time to absorb food as it passes through the digestive system and can result in dramatic weight loss. But early results have shown that the surgery is having an effect before weight loss occurs, meaning that the precise section of bowel that is removed has some other role.This is a drastic procedure, but serious conditions call for drastic remedies. Still, once again we discover that embryonic stem cells are not the "only hope."Two people who have had surgery to remove the upper small intestine or duodenum had Type 2 diabetes but were not overweight. Since the operation they have been able to come off their diabetes drugs as their body is now able to deal with sugar more normally.
Labels: Surgical treatment for diabetes.
posted by Wesley J. Smith @ 6:35 PM
5 Comments
5 Comments:
Type II diabetes Wes, not type I. It's unlikely ES cells would be valuable for Type II diabetes since they are insulin insensitive.
It's an interesting result though, it suggests some endocrine role of the stomach, if anything, that is disrupting insulin sensitivity of tissues - especially because the effect is so rapid.
I know that markh. But I often hear talk of ES cells helping this kind, too. I have come to believe that ESCR has become a mythical new snake oil, cure all. Not among scientists, but in many areas of media and among the public. That is one reason I post entries such as this one.
Thanks again for coming by and contributing to SHS.
Really? I've been googling around those search terms and finding very little on it except at right to life sites and foreign scam clinics. Nothing to substantiate the claims being made that it's a serious solution to type II diabetes.
Do you have references?
You must not have looked very hard. I got this in two minutes on Google. It is from a press release put out by the American Diabetes Association promoting an overturning of the Bush policy:
"Stem cell research allows scientists to better explore how to control and direct stem cells so they can grow into other cells, such as insulin-producing beta cells found in the pancreas. Creating new beta cells
could mean a cure for type 1 diabetes as they would serve as a
replenishable source of cells for islet cell transplantation. They could also provide a powerful tool for controlling type 2 diabetes."
"Embryonic Stem Cell Research Offers Great Promise for Americans with Diabetes"
Eh. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. And it is admittedly a weak possibility.
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