Stem Cell Therapy for Diabetes: A New Approach to Blood Sugar Management

What is diabetes?

Diabetes is a long-term illness that affects the way your body converts food into energy.

The majority of the food you eat is converted to sugar (also known as glucose) and absorbed into your bloodstream. When your blood sugar levels rise, your pancreas is prompted to release insulin. Insulin is a key that allows blood sugar to enter your body's cells and be used as energy.

If you have diabetes, your body either does not produce enough insulin or does not utilize it as effectively as it should. Too much blood sugar persists in your bloodstream when there isn't enough insulin or when cells stop responding to insulin. This can lead to major health issues like heart disease, eyesight loss, and renal illness over time.

Which treatment can cure diabetes?

Although there is no treatment for diabetes at this time, decreasing weight, eating healthy foods, and being active can all help. Taking medication as needed, receiving diabetes self-management education and support, and keeping health-care appointments all can help to diminish the impact diabetes has on your life.

Type 1 diabetes is thought to be caused by an autoimmune reaction (in which the body mistakenly attacks itself) that stops the body from producing insulin. Type 1 diabetes affects around 5-10% of people with diabetes. Type 1 diabetes symptoms might appear suddenly. It's most commonly found in children, teenagers, and young adults. If you have type 1 diabetes, you need to take insulin on a daily basis to stay alive. No one knows how to avoid type 1 diabetes right now. (1)

What Causes Diabetes?

Each form of diabetes has a different set of reasons.

Type 1 diabetes is caused by an unknown factor, according to doctors. The immune system mistakenly targets and destroys insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas for unknown reasons. In some people, genes may play a role. It's also possible that a virus triggers an immunological response.

Type 2 diabetes is caused by a mix of genetics and lifestyle choices. Obesity or being overweight increases your risk. Extra weight, especially around the midsection, makes your cells more resistant to insulin's effects on blood sugar. (2)

What is stem cell therapy?

Stem Cells are the base cells for every organ and tissue in our bodies. We have stem cells for different purposes all over our body to regenerate tissue as we grow, for example, skin. If we cut and start bleeding, stem cells will differentiate into skin cells that will go to work into repairing that cut. As we grow older, these stem cells stop working as effectively as they once did, and this causes the body to need help to function properly.

There are two types of stem cells, and we use both for our protocol depending on the patient’s condition:

• Allogeneic stem cells: they come from another donor, healthy individuals screened and tested, all of them between the ages 18 and 22 years.
• Autologous stem cells: They come from your own blood, adipose tissue or bone marrow.

How does stem cell therapy help to treat diabetes?  

Researchers are now turning to stem cells as a way to generate a large number of new b-cells without the drawbacks of transplantation. The stem cells travel to the damaged tissue after being implanted, develop into new b-cells, and continue to maintain a healthy amount of b-cells in the body. Alternatively, stem cells can be generated in the lab and encouraged to produce insulin. These cells could then be used to replenish cells that have been depleted in a patient's body. Type 1 diabetes could be successfully controlled with these strategies without relying on the restricted availability of donor cells.

Type 2 diabetes can be treated using stem cells comparably. Although b-cells are still present in Type 2 patients, extra b-cells could increase the body's supply and help the patient overcome insulin resistance. To treat a patient's insulin resistance, treatment could try to keep b-cell levels above the needed level.

Although improvements in the treatment of diabetes using stem cells have previously been accomplished, stem cell research is still ongoing and improving every day. In the body, stem cells have been demonstrated to replenish b-cells, and they have also been generated in the lab for implantation. With Type 1 Diabetes, the body still has an immunological response, while Type 2 Diabetes has insulin resistance. In most cases, additional treatment is required in addition to stem cells to guarantee that the body absorbs the new cells safely and that normal blood glucose levels return more permanently.

Financial Option for Stem Cell Therapy

Giostar Mexico is continuously looking to provide our patients with resources and options to receive stem cell therapy at the best stem cell clinics in Mexico. We are happy to announce that, through United Medical Credit, our patients (exclusive for US citizens) may now receive up to $25,000.00 USD in credit for their treatment (note: price for therapy varies depending on the condition to be treated and a number of stem cells [vials] included). Patients can ask for the maximum amount of the credit or ask for a percentage based on the price of the therapy.

Stem cell therapy is a procedure in the regenerative medicine field. Regenerative medicine's ultimate goal is that our body regenerates itself. What stem cell therapy does in your body is slowing down or stopping the suffered deterioration and it can even regenerate tissue. That is why we ask patients to fill out a health form, so our medical staff may first identify if stem cell therapy is actually an option for them and the medical team knows the specifics of your health condition.

If you have Diabetes 1 or 2 and want to find out if you're a candidate for stem cell therapy, you can fill out this contact form and we will give you a call or email you as soon as possible! Or contact us directly on our US landline at 619-866-6000.

References

https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/basics/diabetes.html (1)

https://www.healthline.com/health/diabetes#causes (2)

https://www.dvcstem.com/post/can-stem-cells-treat-diabetes(3)