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Monday, June 17, 2013

Great news ~ treatment for Diabetes without insulin soon........

Asoformin; Avimet; Conformin; dibimet; formet ; Glumet ; Glyciphage ; Glycomet ; Insumet ; Medformin ; Metlife ; Obimet ; Omet ; Walaphage and more………  most likely that you can identify what this is easily as many Indians are buying this daily……..  One may not easily identify ‘ATP/P2X7R pathway’ ~ sounds some computer code… P2X purinoceptor 7 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the P2RX7 gene. The product of this gene belongs to the family of purinoceptors for ATP. Multiple alternatively spliced variants which would encode different isoforms have been identified although some fit nonsense-mediated decay criteria. The receptor is found in the central and peripheral nervous systems, in microglia, in macrophages, in uterine endometrium, and in the retina.

For decades, patients have managed their type 1 diabetes by injecting themselves with insulin to regulate the glucose in their blood. Initially it was painful ~ now there are fine needles available, still…….. it never is a happy state of affairs…. They say Diabetes is not a disease but only a disorder – howsoever you name it, one has to simply live with it… it is killing mentally ~ as you cannot eat what you want to and would start feeling that the whole World exists to eat ! and you are denied that pleasure.  Injecting insulin addresses the immediate danger of low insulin levels.

Diabetes mellitus, or simply diabetes, is a group of metabolic diseases in which a person has high blood sugar, either because the pancreas does not produce enough insulin, or because cells do not respond to the insulin that is produced.  This high blood sugar produces the classical symptoms of polyuria (frequent urination), polydipsia (increased thirst) and polyphagia (increased hunger). There are three main types of diabetes mellitus (DM). Type 1 DM results from the body's failure to produce insulin, and currently requires the person to inject insulin or wear an insulin pump. This form was previously referred to as "insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus" (IDDM) or "juvenile diabetes". Type 2 DM results from insulin resistance, a condition in which cells fail to use insulin properly, sometimes combined with an absolute insulin deficiency. The third  is  gestational diabetes occurring in pregnant women without a previous diagnosis of diabetes develop a high blood glucose level. It may precede development of type 2 DM.

Untreated, diabetes can cause many complications. Acute complications include diabetic ketoacidosis and nonketotic hyperosmolar coma. Serious long-term complications include cardiovascular disease, chronic renal failure, and diabetic retinopathy (retinal damage). Adequate treatment of diabetes is thus important, as well as blood pressure control and lifestyle factors such as stopping smoking and maintaining a healthy body weight.

Metformin is an oral antidiabetic drug.  It reportedly is the first-line drug of choice for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. Metformin is  an  antidiabetic drug that has been conclusively shown to prevent the cardiovascular complications of diabetes. When prescribed appropriately, metformin causes few adverse effects (the most common is gastrointestinal upset) and is associated with a low risk of hypoglycemia. First synthesized and found to reduce blood sugar in the 1920s, metformin was forgotten for the next two decades as research shifted to insulin and other antidiabetic drugs. Interest in metformin was rekindled in the late 1940s after several reports that it could reduce blood sugar levels in people; Metformin is now believed to be the most widely prescribed antidiabetic drug in the world.

Now here is an article reproduced from - : bostonmagazine.com – which sure would be music  to ears of those affected by Diabetes. The newsitem states that - Boston Children’s Hospital has found the  Root Cause of Diabetes and that with just a little more study, they could possibly cure type 1 diabetes. Treatment of diabetes without insulin shots – sounds too good….

**** Boston Children’s Hospital could be on the verge of curing type 1 diabetes. Seriously. This huge news, which was announced today on their blog, could affect the 215,000 people in the U.S. younger than 20 who have diabetes (type 1 or type 2). That’s a pretty huge number, so it’s no wonder why it’s been called an epidemic.

People who live with type 1 diabetes have to inject themselves with insulin to regulate the glucose in their blood. It’s an immediate fix, but there are many long-term complications associated with diabetes, like heart and kidney diseases, nerve problems, skin issues, and problems with vision, among others. “Insulin injections can manage hyperglycemia by reducing the patient’s glucose levels, but it is not the cure,” says Dr. Paolo Fiorina of the Nephrology Division at Boston Children’s Hospital in the report. The Nephrology Division was recently ranked number one in the country by U.S. News and World Report.

Fiorina was looking for the molecular pathway that triggers diabetes, hoping to find better treatment options with the ultimate goal of finding a permanent cure. “In order to truly cure diabetes, we needed to pinpoint exactly why this happens. And then prevent it,” Fiorina says. According to Boston Children’s Hospital, Fiorina and his team found the root cause of type 1 diabetes: Fiorina and his team studied hundreds of pathways in animals with diabetes. They eventually isolated one, known as ATP/P2X7R, which triggers the T-cell attacks on the pancreas, rendering it unable to produce insulin.

“By identifying the ATP/P2X7R pathway as the early mechanism in the body that fires up an alloimmune response, we found the root cause of diabetes,” says Fiorina. “With the cause identified, we can now focus on treatment options. Everything from drug therapies to transplants that require less immunosuppression is being explored.”

It will still be a few years before they can test the therapies in children, but the outcome of what was discovered here could be truly amazing. “I believe it won’t be long before we can cure diabetes with a number of different therapies depending on the needs of the patient,” Fiorina says on the blog. “Then, if the right screening techniques for diabetes could be developed, it would be entirely possible in many cases that we could prevent the disease from ever developing in children. The future of diabetes treatment is very exciting.”****

Great news indeed for the humanity…..

With regards – S. Sampathkumar   

17th June 2013.

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