Following my commitment to general improvement of my medical knowledge and drive to help address as many client health issues as possible, I recently took a look at Diabetes and how the body is affected. During the course of my studies, I spoke with the experts at Dtsbuyers.com. They have good knowledge of this disease and run an offer that allows people to return all unused diabetic test strips for cash. In the course of our discussions, I was directed to a study carried out at Dresden Technical University which demonstrated that daily intake of insulin can help stop the development of diabetes type 1 in children.
The study was led by Ezio Bonifacio. 25 children who could be considered at high risk of developing diabetes type 1 were involved in the test with all of them certified to have a strong family history of the disease. The nationalities of the children spanned the United Kingdom, Germany, United States and Austria. Fifteen of these children were given insulin orally on a daily basis with the dosage increased gradually. The other ten were given a placebo. This study was done over 18 months. The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation funded this research and the results of the study were published in the Journal of The American Medical Association.
Results
From the results of the study, researchers found out that all the children who received insulin everyday developed an immune response that had the ability of protecting them from the development of type 1 diabetes. The researchers equally noticed that oral insulin did not lead to the development of any adverse reactions in the children. The vaccine like effect of the insulin made researchers conclude that children at-risk of developing type 1 diabetes go on to develop it due to inadequate supply of insulin. Therefore, to trigger a protective response, the immune system needs to be exposed to insulin at an early age. This research also confirmed the notion that scientists are closer than ever to developing a vaccine that can help in the prevention of type 1 diabetes. However, due to the sensitive nature of insulin, in that it is classified as a ‘cold chain product’ and needs to be stored at precise temperatures to ensure its potency, it may need to be stored in pharmacy fridges or other storage that can hold temperature stability. Deviating from temperature regulations could cause the insulin to become unfit to administer and potentially ineffective.
Summary
Although the results of this study can be deemed as promising, it is not definitive as a wider test needs to be conducted to demonstrate the impact of oral insulin in diabetes prevention. The researchers in this study also mentioned the need to administer oral insulin with care. Excessive intake of insulin by children can actually lead to development of diabetes.
