possile cure for type 1 diabetes?

The drug verapamil has been found to completely reverse type 1 diabetes in animal models and now there is going to be a trial to see if it has the same effect on humans:

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2014-11-human-clinical-trial-drug-shown.html

-lets hope this works. If it does, that would just leave finding a cure for type 2 diabetes.

Originally posted by humy
The drug verapamil has been found to completely reverse type 1 diabetes in animal models and now there is going to be a trial to see if it has the same effect on humans:

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2014-11-human-clinical-trial-drug-shown.html

-lets hope this works. If it does, that would just leave finding a cure for type 2 diabetes.

Surely if it is a widely used drug currently existing statistics would tell us whether it is effective?

Originally posted by twhitehead
Surely if it is a widely used drug currently existing statistics would tell us whether it is effective?

but it isn't currently used for diabetes but rather is used to treat high blood pressure, irregular heartbeat and migraine headaches and mostly on none diabetics and wasn't previously suspected to help diabetics with their diabetes. So I presume no statistics have been collected specifically on the effects on the diabetes of diabetics but rather the statistics collected are about its effects on blood pressure etc.

Wouldn't it be better that get rid of the reason for diabetes? The way of life?

We have more diabetes in the world than ever. Where did it go wrong? What have we to do to correctify it.

(But of course, a cure would be good, in the mean time.)

Originally posted by FabianFnas
Wouldn't it be better that get rid of the reason for diabetes? The way of life?

We have more diabetes in the world than ever. Where did it go wrong? What have we to do to correctify it.

(But of course, a cure would be good, in the mean time.)

The main cause of diabetes is excess sugar consumption although it is more complicated than that for there are other causes. It would obviously be good to have some kind of global campaign to greatly reduce sugar consumption which would not only reduce diabetes but obesity.

But not sure how that would work in practice -perhaps put a huge tax on sugar (for consumption ) and honey (which is no better for health ) and maple syrup etc and even some artificial sweeteners (because, surprisingly, research indicates some also cause diabetes! ) to make its price artificially sufficiently high as to force all but the rich to reduce their sugar consumption? But I bet many people wouldn't stand for that though and protest against it saying it is their right to eat unhealthily if they want to (which I would personally disagree with because I think unhealthy eating would inevitably indirectly significantly adversely effect the rest of society. The same goes for smoking which I think should be banned )

It has occurred to me that, if effective cures of diabetes are developed, that may encourage many people to consume even more sugar without constraint and make the obesity epidemic even worse! Perhaps then such cures for diabetes must be accompanied with the implementation of measures to reduce consumption.

Originally posted by FabianFnas
Wouldn't it be better that get rid of the reason for diabetes? The way of life?

We have more diabetes in the world than ever. Where did it go wrong? What have we to do to correctify it.

(But of course, a cure would be good, in the mean time.)

The cause of type 1 diabetes is, according to Wikipedia, unknown. There is certainly a genetic component. There is nothing on the Wikipedia page that suggests a known lifestyle that causes it.
I have lost a sibling and a cousin to type 1 diabetes.
There is also a history of type 2 diabetes in my family, again with no known lifestyle cause.

Originally posted by humy
The main cause of diabetes is excess sugar consumption although it is more complicated than that for there are other causes.

Not for type 1 diabetes as far as I know.

Originally posted by twhitehead
Not for type 1 diabetes as far as I know.

yes, I should have said for type 2.

Originally posted by twhitehead
The cause of type 1 diabetes is, according to Wikipedia, unknown. There is certainly a genetic component. There is nothing on the Wikipedia page that suggests a known lifestyle that causes it.
I have lost a sibling and a cousin to type 1 diabetes.
There is also a history of type 2 diabetes in my family, again with no known lifestyle cause.

I think it is safe to say that it has something to do with our modern life.

The frequence of diabetes is far higher now compared to how high the rate was in the old days. And it is much higher in our countries than in cultures that doesn't share our way of life.

Originally posted by FabianFnas
I think it is safe to say that it has something to do with our modern life.

The frequence of diabetes is far higher now compared to how high the rate was in the old days. And it is much higher in our countries than in cultures that doesn't share our way of life.

I think it is also due to the body attacking its own insulin producing cells so there is an autoimmune component as well.

Originally posted by FabianFnas
I think it is safe to say that it has something to do with our modern life.

The frequence of diabetes is far higher now compared to how high the rate was in the old days. And it is much higher in our countries than in cultures that doesn't share our way of life.

Do you have any statistics on that?

Originally posted by sonhouse
I think it is also due to the body attacking its own insulin producing cells so there is an autoimmune component as well.

yes, that is the cause for type 1 diabetes ( but not type 2 ) .
The reason for the increase in type 1 diabetes could be explained by the hygiene hypothesis:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hygiene_hypothesis

Basically, the theory is we have evolved with immune systems adapted to constant exposure to microbes (both good and bad but mainly just harmless ) but our relatively sterile modern environment can mean your immune system isn't exercised with sufficient exposure to microbes and this causes it to malfunction because our immune system hasn't evolved to respond appropriately to that unnaturally sterile environment which has never existed in the distant past. The result is autoimmunity disease including type 1 diabetes.

I vaguely remember (don't remember from where ) some evidence of this with the discovery of a group of people that were known to have been exposed at childhood to unusually high levels of microbes from manure over an extended time and the result was they statistically had an unusually low incidence of allergies and type 1 diabetes later in life

-anyone: does anyone have a link for the above bit of evidence? I tried my best googling it but got absolutely nowhere.

Originally posted by humy
-anyone: does anyone have a link for the above bit of evidence? I tried my best googling it but got absolutely nowhere.

Just Google "allergies farm" and you will get quite a lot of results including:
http://www.jacionline.org/article/S0091-6749(12)00519-2/fulltext

But no mention of diabetes.

http://www.forallvent.info/uploads/media/VonMutius.ppt_01.pdf

The above link specifically says:

No relation between farm exposures and type 1 diabetes in a German case control study (n=466).

Originally posted by twhitehead
Do you have any statistics on that?

You mean like a link to a convincing statistics? No, I haven't. Other than I saw it on BBC programme or read it in nature, or read an article that in turn had that ref you ask for.

Do you have any ref to the opposite?