Fewer pin-pricks for diabetics

There is more good news for diabetics than just the sugar-free goodies stocked in the nearby superstore. In what may be landmark discoveries, two separate teams of researchers may have found a cure for type 1 and type 2 diabetes. A team of US and Brazilian researchers have found that stem cell treatment for type 1 diabetes may free patients from their daily dose of insulin injections.

However, the bigger killer is type 2 diabetes that is known to be the most common and progressive form of the disease, affecting almost 90 per cent of diabetics worldwide.

India alone has more than 30 million diabetics, moving towards a staggering figure of 75 million in 20 years, and has the distinction of having one of the highest diabetic population. But now, the discovery of a new therapy by scientists at the Zurich University in Switzerland might help bring type 2 diabetes under better control.

Led by Dr Marc Y Donath, the study published in the New England Journal of Medicine this week reveals that daily injections of anakinra, a drug that is also used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, improve blood glucose levels and the secretion of insulin by the beta cells of the pancreas in the patient, thus protecting the cells from glucose-induced impairment.

Diabetes, an incurable condition where the patient has excess glucose in the blood, is categorised as type 2 if it occurs due to lack of insulin in the body, which takes the sugar from the body into the cells. However, if the body lacks or ignores insulin, the glucose from the sugar remains in the blood and can lead to health complications such as heart and liver problems.

Living with type 2 diabetes is tough but not impossible. Some patients are subjected to daily injections of insulin. Most, however, have to bring about severe changes in their lifestyle and drastically cut down on their sugar intake.

The discovery of the new drug anakinra for treating diabetes could help fight the disease that has become common all over the world. According to Donath, a dramatic increase is expected in the next few years, not only in

Western countries but particularly in Africa and India. Though the usage of this drug is daily, the same team of researchers plans to develop a treatment that would restrict the usage to once a month. Here's to a life with fewer pin-pricks.