Can Our Bodies Help Cure Themselves of Diabetes? Researchers Have Some Good News   

Diabetes: The body’s inability to produce insulin, which regulates blood sugar levels that is usually due to damage or non-existent insulin cells. Having regular blood sugar levels is crucial to good health. 

Being someone who is pre-diabetic, making sure I eat correctly and staying away from too much sugar has become a regular routine in my life. But now, maybe there is good news for those suffering from the disease. 

Researchers at the University of Bergen in Norway have discovered that glucagon producing cells (which are hormones formed in the pancreas) can change their identity and assist with damaged or missing insulin cells. 

What does this discovery mean for those with diabetes? 

According to researcher Luiza Ghila at Raeder Research Labs at The University of Bergen it means that: “We are possibly facing the start of a totally new form of treatment for diabetes where the body can produce its own insulin with some start up help.”

In a recent study, researchers were able to increase insulin producing cells to 5% using a drug that influenced the “inner-cell signaling process.” Currently, this testing was only done on animals, but this discovery was very encouraging. 

This could be great news for diabetics, as well as other “cell death” diseases like Alzheimer’s and those who have cell damage due to a heart attack. 

Let’s hope more testing will bring even more good news!