“I think, we, as scientists, all realize that the ultimate success can only be achieved through teamwork.”
Jan Jensen, PhD, The Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH.
September 23, 2009
Click here to learn more about how the CDP was able to help Sandra Alvord a type I diabetic.
Treating & Curing Diabetes: New Advances
Some habits are hard to break and after living with diabetes for more than 40 years, Sandra Alvord can’t quite get used to not having to test her blood sugar. Sandra was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when she was six years old. It’s meant a lifetime of testing, shots, watching her diet and worry. Sandra had the disease for so long that she no longer could sense when her blood sugar was dangerously low. She passed out while driving, she had seizures in front of her kids, her mood swings were tough to take. Scared and tired, Sandra decided to undergo an experimental islet cell transplant.
“Pancreatic islet cells are the cells that are responsible for making insulin which humans need to control the blood sugar levels,” Dr. Oberholzer says. In diabetics, the cells simply don’t work any more. In a transplant, doctors take islet cells from a donated pancreas and insert the cells directly into the liver where they start producing insulin. “It is a very safe procedure and most patients will be able to leave the hospital after an overnight stay. Once they are released from the hospital they will have to take medications to prevent the rejections of the cells.” Sandra is now insulin free.
“There is another type of transplant for patients with diabetes being done here at the Mayo clinic in Arizona and at other large hospitals across the country, and that’s a pancreas transplant. And if it’s successful, those patients live diabetes free.” Dr. Mazur says the pancreases transplant is typically done in conjunction with a kidney transplant. But often there are diabetic patients so ill that a new pancreas is their only hope.
Skip Walstad kept his diabetes vigilance up for years and was in very good control. But he, like Sandra, got to the point where he couldn’t sense when his blood sugar was getting low and the close calls were getting scary. “The paramedics said at the time that I had maybe five minutes to live.” That episode brought Skip to Mayo, and Dr. Mazur where he underwent a technically difficult pancreas transplant, but Dr. Mazur says the results can be amazing. “Typically from the time the pancreas is transplanted, people no longer need insulin most of the time.” Skip’s new pancreas started to work from day one. Skip is insulin free, but he hasn’t given up medication. He will have to take anti-rejection medication for the rest of his life. But a few pills everyday is well worth it to lift the veil of worry diabetes once created.
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