A Cure for Type 1 Diabetes? For One Man, It Seems to Have Worked.
A new treatment using stem cells that produce insulin has surprised experts and given them hope for the 1.5 million Americans living with the disease.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/27/health/diabetes-cure-stem-cells.html
QuoteMr. Shelton was the first patient. On June 29, he got an infusion of cells, grown from stem cells but just like the insulin-producing pancreas cells his body lacked.
Now his body automatically controls its insulin and blood sugar levels.
Mr. Shelton, now 64, may be the first person cured of the disease with a new treatment that has experts daring to hope that help may be coming for many of the 1.5 million Americans suffering from Type 1 diabetes.
"It's a whole new life," Mr. Shelton said. "It's like a miracle."
Diabetes experts were astonished but urged caution. The study is continuing and will take five years, involving 17 people with severe cases of Type 1 diabetes. It is not intended as a treatment for the more common Type 2 diabetes.
"We've been looking for something like this to happen literally for decades," said Dr. Irl Hirsch, a diabetes expert at the University of Washington who was not involved in the research.