Quote:
Originally Posted by LEGALEAGLE
I thought a cure for diabetes was on the horizon ?
|
There's no real "cure" for diabetes, other than a healthy diet, plenty of exercise, and good genes. Even a pancreatic transplant won't really help, except in pure type 1 diabetics. The problem is, the number of type 1 diabetics (insufficient production of insulin) is relatively small compared to the number of type 2 diabetics (the body becomes resistant to insulin; you need bigger and bigger doses to get any response). There are surgical "cures" - most gastric bypass patients are cured of type 2 diabetes, and that has been shown to be independent of the weight loss (apparently, the reconfigured anatomy somehow affects the gut physiology so much that the metabolism is entirely different compared to pre-op). But how many people realistically have access to it?
There are increasingly effective treatments, but then you still have the problems of access, especially in the developing world, and compliance. Combined insulin pump/glucose monitors are on the way (artificial pancreae), but even those will be very expensive, and not effective for all patients.