Stem cell research has been around for quite some time. It has been the subject of focus for countless diseases and conditions, most of them considered untreatable or incurable, ranging from Parkinson’s disease to heart disease. Despite labels such as “incurable” and “untreatable,” stem cell research has given hope to countless people living with chronic conditions, including both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes.

Stem Cell Research and Diabetes

Operating under the notion that immune system abnormalities are to blame for both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes—insulin resistance in Type 2, and persistent immune attacks in Type 1—researchers used stem cells to “educate” immune cells in the proper way to handle the effects brought on by diabetes. These immune cells were then replaced in the patient’s blood, and their condition was monitored to check for any improvement (or lack thereof).

Happily, the study concluded that patients who received the stem cell-treated immune boost suffered from lesser complications and impacts of both types of diabetes—some even seeing a reversal of all symptoms—presumably due to the suppressed immune response triggered in diabetic patients.

Treatment Outlook

Although this method of treatment is not one that can be done quickly and easily in a doctor’s office, nor is it as simple as writing a prescription, it does shed some additional light onthe problem of diabetes, its methods of attack, and possible future treatments and areas in need of greater research and study.

This form of stem cell treatment is extremely exciting, in that it suggests a possible cure for diabetes is not one that will be found in a chemical created entirely in a lab or that prevention is the only source of warding off diabetes. Instead, this study suggests that the human body has its own answers to healing chronic conditions, even if it does require the assistance and expertise of a team of trained physicians.

While stem cell treatment is not widely available—nor approved for treatment of diabetes on a large scale—it does lend insight into the role of the immune system in handling all types of diabetes. Immune support does play a strong role in the management and prevention of diabetes, which is great news for current sufferers and pre-diabetes patients alike; improving immunity is largely painless, inexpensive, and simple.

Stem cell research is still undergoing human clinical trials but is consistently regarded as one of the research tactics on the forefront of diabetes research and cure efforts.