Are We Closer to a Cure for Diabetes? (indiatimes.com) 75
"Chinese scientists develop cure for diabetes," reads the headline from the world's second-most widely read English-language newspaper. ("Insulin patient becomes medicine-free in just 3 months.")
The researchers' results were published earlier in May in Cell Discovery, and are now getting some serious scrutiny from the press. The Economic Times cites a University of British Columbia professor's assessment that the study "represents an important advance in the field of cell therapy for diabetes," in an article calling it a "breakthrough" that "marks a significant advancement in cell therapy for diabetes." Chinese scientists have successfully cured a patient's diabetes using a groundbreaking cell therapy... According to a South China Morning Post report, the patient underwent the cell transplant in July 2021. Remarkably, within eleven weeks, he no longer required external insulin. Over the next year, he gradually reduced and ultimately stopped taking oral medication for blood sugar control. "Follow-up examinations showed that the patient's pancreatic islet function was effectively restored," said Yin, one of the lead researchers. The patient has now been insulin-free for 33 months... The new therapy involves programming the patient's peripheral blood mononuclear cells, transforming them into "seed cells" to recreate pancreatic islet tissue in an artificial environment.
Their article calls it "a significant medical milestone" — noting that 140 million people in China have diabetes (according to figures from the International Diabetes Federation).
Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader AmiMoJo for sharing the news.
The researchers' results were published earlier in May in Cell Discovery, and are now getting some serious scrutiny from the press. The Economic Times cites a University of British Columbia professor's assessment that the study "represents an important advance in the field of cell therapy for diabetes," in an article calling it a "breakthrough" that "marks a significant advancement in cell therapy for diabetes." Chinese scientists have successfully cured a patient's diabetes using a groundbreaking cell therapy... According to a South China Morning Post report, the patient underwent the cell transplant in July 2021. Remarkably, within eleven weeks, he no longer required external insulin. Over the next year, he gradually reduced and ultimately stopped taking oral medication for blood sugar control. "Follow-up examinations showed that the patient's pancreatic islet function was effectively restored," said Yin, one of the lead researchers. The patient has now been insulin-free for 33 months... The new therapy involves programming the patient's peripheral blood mononuclear cells, transforming them into "seed cells" to recreate pancreatic islet tissue in an artificial environment.
Their article calls it "a significant medical milestone" — noting that 140 million people in China have diabetes (according to figures from the International Diabetes Federation).
Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader AmiMoJo for sharing the news.
They found a cure for diabetes? (Score:5, Funny)
Sweet!
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What is it, catching Covid-24?
*ducks*
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On a humorous note: At the rate things are going, it's not covid-24, it's going to be cowvid-24.
Diet, lifestyle, infrastructure & community (Score:4, Interesting)
https://www.amazon.com/End-Dia... [amazon.com]
"The New York Times bestselling author of Eat to Live and Super Immunity and one of the country's leading experts on preventive medicine offers a scientifically proven, practical program to prevent and reverse [Type 2] diabetes--without drugs.
At last, a breakthrough program to combat the rising diabetes epidemic and help millions of diabetics, as well as those suffering with high blood pressure and heart disease. Joel Fuhrman, M.D. Research director of the Nutritional Research Foundation, shows you how to live a long, healthy, and happy life--disease free. He offers a complete health transformation, starting with a diet with a high nutrient-per-calorie ratio that can be adapted for individual needs.
Dr. Fuhrman makes clear that we don't have to "control" diabetes. Patients can choose to follow better nutritional guidelines that will control it for them, even before they have lost excess weight. The end result is a medical breakthrough--a comprehensive reversal of the disease."
Summary: https://www.drfuhrman.com/heal... [drfuhrman.com]
"A Nutritarian diet is key to preventing, improving, and reversing type 2 diabetes and is critical for the health and survival of type 1 diabetics. Diabetes affects roughly 135 million people worldwide, with more than 16 million Americans suffering from diabetes. More than 70 percent of the adults with Type 2 diabetes die of heart attacks or strokes. In diabetes mellitus type 2 and gestational diabetes, the insulin produced by the pancreas is not sufficient enough to drive the glucose out of the bloodstream and into cells. Diabetes mellitus type 1 results from the autoimmune destruction of the beta cells of the pancreas, which produce insulin. While patients with type 1 diabetes can significantly improve their glucose control and risk of complications, type 2 diabetes and gestational diabetes can be totally reversed with a Nutritarian diet.
Medications for diabetes have significant risks and side effects including heart failure and cancer. Many oral medications and insulin worsen weight gain, which worsens insulin resistance, leading to the need for more medications thus increasing the complications of diabetes. Only a Nutritarian diet that is filled with micronutrient-dense vegetables, fruits, beans, nuts, and seeds can transform people quickly, yet permanently, to a favorable weight and repair damaged cells. This way of eating helps with weight loss, restores insulin sensitivity, lowers glucose numbers, restores pancreatic function, decreases the risk of long-term complications, and significantly improves quality of life. A Nutritarian diet is the answer to the diabetes epidemic."
Of course, it is hard to eat that way in the USA. Some ideas for building social support:
"Logical Miracles: Second Edition, edited by Dor Mullen"
https://www.amazon.com/Logical... [amazon.com]
"Why is it so hard to eat right? What does it take to turn around the habits that keep us sick, fat and depressed? Logical Miracles is a collection of stories by people in The Suppers Programs who found their personal solutions by experimenting with whole food. In an environment of nonjudgment, we cook, taste and feel our way to health, and we forge new friendships based on healthy living."
Some ideas for rebuilding US infrastructure to support healthy eating:
https://www.bluezones.com/serv... [bluezones.com]
Lowering overall stress helps a lot too, as stressed people instinctively fatten up for hard times.
More on the "Pleasure Trap" psychology of all this, given humans are adapted for a scarcity of refined sugar, fat, and salt and our instincts misguide us given mod
Re:Diet, lifestyle, infrastructure & community (Score:5, Informative)
"type 2 diabetes and gestational diabetes can be totally reversed with a Nutritarian diet."
Absolute nonsense except very, very early on (long before insulin dependence). And you have to lose a lot of weight very fast. Even then usually all it does is delay later onset for a time.
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I did too. I lost weight. But not for long.
Re: Diet, lifestyle, infrastructure & communit (Score:1)
If you lost weight once, you can lose it again, donâ(TM)t give up. Many diets cause you to lose weight but not for long because they are depriving you of necessary nutrients as a side effect and/or they still contain loads of sugar (natural or refined, sugar is sugar).
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I know, I do it all the time!
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People forget that there are multiple types of type 2 diabetes. Your body can just make not enough insulin, while still making some, or you can be resistant to it, and simply not make use of the regular amounts your pancreas is making. Being overweight is typically the first of those, and losing weight (and eating vastly less) can often help, but not always. In some cases, you win the lottery and wind up both not making as much as a regular person, AND being resistant to it as well.
Type 1's don't make any.
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The Chinese treatment was for a Type 2 diabetic who had lost all or nearly all his Pancreatic insulin producing cells. Like me. Too many Cheesey Poofs.
For those who are interested, from what my endocrinologist explained to me years ago, processed food is made from cheap, low quality "trans" fats, which are too large to make proper 'holes' in lipid cell walls preventing sugar from getting into cells, so you need more insulin. AKA insulin resistance.
Eating lots of meat and no bread helps diabetics because
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type 2 diabetes and gestational diabetes can be totally reversed with a Nutritarian diet.
Absolute nonsense except very, very early on (long before insulin dependence). And you have to lose a lot of weight very fast. Even then usually all it does is delay later onset for a time.
I will try to remember your words as I neglect to inject myself with insulin for the 2,958th day, except I didn't use a Nurtritarian (?!) diet, I merely went extreme(!) on removing carbohydrates and sugars from my diet for 3 months. If I do go back to being diabetic, it will be because of my diet, not because it was "inevitable".
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Jesus, a little brevity might help the next time you post.
Re: Diet, lifestyle, infrastructure & communit (Score:2)
Didn't this happen last year? (Score:3)
https://news.ubc.ca/2023/11/st... [news.ubc.ca]
It was done by an American company in Canada... and they were being a bit more cautious about the degree of the results.
Re:Didn't this happen last year? (Score:4, Informative)
South China Morning Post is CCP state media since the Hong Kong invasion. I stopped reading right there.
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In that study it decreased the amount of insulin that the patient needed. In this case they had a complete cure with no further insulin required.
So for once Betterage is wrong, we are closer to a cure.
Re: Didn't this happen last year? (Score:1)
I get that you want to believe literally everything that the CCP says, from GDP to pandemic fatalities, but even if we took them at their word (just...why? I don't get people like you...) this remains a one-off. Science just doesn't work that way. It needs to be repeatable, and until it is, it's just tabloid material. So Betterage remains for the time being.
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Even if it's not repeatable using this method, the fact that it isn't will offer some insight. There would need to be something unique about this case, which may suggest how to extend it to everyone. That's how science works.
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What does it even have to do with the CCP?
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that's not at all the same. that was just an insulin patch made with stem cells, and it didn't quite work. this experiment actually regenerated islet tissue.
Time (Score:2)
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From what my diabetic friend showed me, I think 2 years without calculating your insulin doses all the time, injecting yourself several times a day, planning your day carefully and rage boluses will probably beat a lot of side effects.
I have my own disability and it's annoying enough, but I'll take it over T1 diabetes and total kidney failure any day. That's 2 diseases I just don't want to deal with.
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It would be a repair, but I'd hesitate to call it a cure anyway. Type 1 is believed to be an autoimmune disease where the immune system destroys these cells. I don't know if the sort of anti-rejection drugs used for transplants would halt that because this reaction is based on cell type not genetic similarity.
For how long? (Score:3)
33 months is good, though it can take years for an otherwise healthy individual to develop insulin resistance from poor diet and sedentary lifestyle. It stands to reason that someone who receives this therapy may relapse if they don't fix their problematic behavior.
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Former type 1 diabetics would probably be especially low risk for type 2. Type 2 bodies are not missing insulin producing cells and insulin resistance wouldn't be changed at all by additional insulin producing cells.
Re:For how long? (Score:4, Informative)
Former type 1 diabetics would probably be especially low risk for type 2. Type 2 bodies are not missing insulin producing cells and insulin resistance wouldn't be changed at all by additional insulin producing cells.
That's incorrect.
Type 2 diabetes starts with pancreatic cells working extra hard to produce extra insulin to combat extra sugar/insulin resistance. Metformin or Glipizide are often given in that phase.
Then, as those overworked cells die and can't be replaced, they switch to taking insulin because they're in the same boat as Type 1.
Type 2 (Score:5, Informative)
To be clear, they're referring to the Type 2 diabetes, which is the milder form that can be managed via diet or pills taken orally. They are not talking about the severe form - Type 1 diabetes - that requires insulin injections or a pump for life.
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Just an addendum, Type 2 sometimes requires insulin injections too, though it's usually long-acting insulin rather than the extremely immediate type.
The article linked seems very light on information as to which they are talking about.
Re:Type 2 (Score:5, Informative)
Here is a better article with a link to the original research. I think it is the same thing as this is refering to.
https://www.diabetes.co.uk/new... [diabetes.co.uk]
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Thanks. That sounds promising. I do note that they call the therapy "expensive", but perhaps that can be optimized.
What to worry about here is:
1) Can type 1 be cured? I.e., can the immune system be trained to not attach the islet cells.
2) What are the chances of cancer? This involves massive manipulation of stem cells, and that's always worrisome.
Also, with this approach each treatment needs to be grown with stem cells from the patient. This is going to really limit how much the cost can be reduced...u
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Cheers. That's both more information-dense and is handling it with a healthy amount of skepticism.
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Honestly, I don't know where you people get your info on Type 2 Diabetes.
1. Controlling it initially requires medication
2. You don't become non-diabetic just via nutrition, in fact very few people are actually able to do this. You usually have to lose considerable weight, but even then the damage has already been done and it will be back after a few years because you're now pre-diabetic (aka Metabolic Syndrome), which leads to Type 2 Diabetes.
3. If you're insulin dependent, you're taking both short term
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Firstly, I know; I've been type 2 diabetic since a rather unfortunate dosage of prednisone hit me way harder than it should have about 15 years ago. Second, I didn't say it could be cured by nutrition. Thirdly, no.
I take the usual pills (metformin), but also take insulin glargine (basal insulin) that lasts 24hrs with each injection and Ozempic at the normal diabetic dose (which lasts a week).
I do not take short term insulin at all, as I don't require it (yet). My doctor is monitoring my HbA1c and I self tes
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To be clear, they're referring to the Type 2 diabetes, which is the milder form that can be managed via diet or pills taken orally. They are not talking about the severe form - Type 1 diabetes - that requires insulin injections or a pump for life.
Type 2 is nearly 20x more common (at least in America) than Type 1, so that’s a huge win, nonetheless, if they did find the cure to it.
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I'll wait until (a) it can actually be obtained and (b) we see what the price is.
My experience with the US medical system has been "yeah, we can do something about that, but no, you can't afford it."
Re: Type 2 (Score:2)
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We justifiably like to roast Big Pharma; but nobody's getting rich selling metformin to Type 2 diabetics.
https://www.singlecare.com/blo... [singlecare.com]
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The article doesn't make sense. The numbers suggest that indeed they are referring to Type 2 diabetes, but the article suggests that their solution is restoring the function of the islets of Langerhans in the pancreas - which are only destroyed in Type 1 diabetes.. Type 2 is not caused by a malfunctioning pancreas, but rather because of cells in the whole body becoming "resistant" to insulin, which the pancreas continues to produce just fine but is being ignored by the cells.
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From a different article they are, indeed talking about type 2 diabetes, but they're talking about a REALLY severe case of it, which was STRONGLY insulin dependent.
P.S.: Don't assume that all cases of type 2 (or 1) diabetes are identical. More than one thing can cause islet cell failure. There are LOTS of failure modes. Homogenizing it into type 1 or type 2 is an oversimplification intended for those who don't really need to deal with it...but don't believe it reflects reality (except for labeling commo
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P.S.: Don't assume that all cases of type 2 (or 1) diabetes are identical. More than one thing can cause islet cell failure. There are LOTS of failure modes. Homogenizing it into type 1 or type 2 is an oversimplification intended for those who don't really need to deal with it...but don't believe it reflects reality (except for labeling common-but-not-all-inclusive clusters of symptoms).
FWIW, I have type 2 diabetes unmedicated and in remission due to strict dietary observance. (I.e. no sugar and VERY little starch.) But not everyone can handle it that way.
^^^ This... I was diet controlled for nearly 20 years. As I got older and my metabolism slowed down, I was prescribed a very small dose of time release glipizide. This was actually problematic on a few occasions if I tried to skip a meal. Then COVID hit... I went from mostly diet controlled to insulin dependent in a few days.
So am I now Type 1, or still Type 2? Dunno. Call it Type 1.5...
NOT Type 2 - Only Type 1 (Score:2)
No, this was, unfortunately, NOT Type 2 diabeter they cured. It was only Type 1, where a patient's islet cells are not present from birth, destroyed or otherwise non-functional. We have known for many years there are good therapies and prospects for curing Type 1. From pancreas transplants, which has been curing Type 1 diabetes since 1966, to various levels of success with partial pancreas transplants, to various forms of human islet cell therapy, to using pig islet cells isolated in semi-permeable rods.
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Did you read the actual publication? It was a Type 2 patient, whose insulin producing cells had given up (exhaustion/overwork?). Type 2 can induce Type 1 characteristics, which is what happened to the patient they treated. The Type 1 characteric (malfunctioning or dead islet cells) was likely not induce by the immune system destroying the islet cells, but instead by the cells exhausting themselves. Therefore, it has a better chance of long-term survival and helping the patient. Hopefully the implanted cells
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More clarification needed here: They treated a Type 2 diabetes patient, whose beta-cells had stopped producing insulin. That is a characteristic of Type 1, but happens in Type 2 because the insulin production is overworked (perhaps?). So basically they treated the Type 1 aspect of their Type 2 diabetes. This method is probably not easily transferrable to Type 1 that occurs independently of Type 2. Because, Type 1 is normally caused by the immune cells going mad and attacking the insulin producing cells. Wit
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To be clear, they're referring to the Type 2 diabetes, which is the milder form that can be managed via diet or pills taken orally. They are not talking about the severe form - Type 1 diabetes - that requires insulin injections or a pump for life.
Agreed that this is about Type 2. But it is not "milder", it is a completely different disease than Type 1. An oversimplified description of the two is that Type 1 is an auto-immune disorder where the immune system attacks the pancreas which then no longer produces insulin while Type 2 has to do with your body not being able to properly use the insulin that your healthy pancreas produces. It is not known what triggers the autoimmune response for Type 1, though there is a genetic component for some. Type 2 c
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I hope its real (Score:3)
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What's been reported is plausible, and should probably be believe pending replication. But, yes, replication is ALWAYS needed. Especially in biomed. One article I read seemed to imply that this procedure had only been used on one patient.
I found a type 2 cure years ago! (Score:2)
I shared with the NIH. See link they published about it:
https://www.niddk.nih.gov/heal... [nih.gov]
Tl;Dr: stop eating shit and get off your ass.
You gotta love capitalism (Score:3, Insightful)
The agro industry makes obscene profits selling food that makes people sick, then the pharma industry makes obscene profits selling drugs to cure them. Everybody wins and makes obscene profits on the backs of real human beings.
You want to solve T2 diabetes? Tax the shit out of junk food. Sue the makers of the most egregious products. That will go a long way towards financing the healthcare burden of obesity and solving the problem at the same time.
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If you want to eat like shit and turn into a diabetic blimp that's your own business
Unfortunately it's not that easy.
Healthy food is significantly more expensive than junk food. So while I agree with you that middle class people with enough income to afford eating well probably should make an effort, that leaves out poor people who have no choice but to stuff themselves full of the worst possible ultra-processed crap just to get calories into themselves simply to survive.
That's why the majority of poor people are fat and most affected by T2D. Junk food is a double punishment on the poor.
FI
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"Healthy food is significantly more expensive than junk food."
Don't believe this, and have never seen a proper study showing it to be true. What is true: kids are not taught how to put together cheap and healthy meals, and huge numbers of adults have no idea how to go about shopping and cooking for such meals.
But a diet based on staples of starchy foods and vegetables, including pulses, with small amounts of meat, fish and dairy is, if carefully shopped for and prepared, both cheap, tasty and healthy. Yo
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"Healthy food is significantly more expensive than junk food."
Don't believe this, and have never seen a proper study showing it to be true.
Have you ever been in a grocery store? Try it sometime, and then compare the price per calorie of healthy ingredients vs unhealthy ingredients. Eg 10 lb of oranges vs 1 lb of sugar.
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My point is, if you are successfully eating well and cheaply you don't buy either one. You would eat oranges occasionally perhaps, but only occasionally, and you would probably not have sugar in the house at all. Before you throw up your hands about this last remark, stop and think for a few moments. I really mean it, you would not have sugar in the house. You would not eat desserts either.
It is not very easy, because it means changing what we are used to consider normal eating habits. People think the
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OK, now compare the price per calorie of oranges vs sugar. Or carrots vs rice. Note I'm comparing macronutrients here.
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I am saying that to eat healthily for very little money you have to take a different approach to shopping and cooking and the diet. And that if you do this, you will find that a healthy diet can be managed for less than the cost of eating a lot of junk foods. I'm obviously not explaining properly so let me try again.
The issue is not carrots versus rice. That is not a choice you have to make. You are living on very little, when you go to the store your aim is to spend only on things which are both cheap
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I agree that it can be cheap to eat healthy food... but another missing ingredient is time. If you're working your butt off to pay the bills, time is often lacking to prepare those cheap healthy meals. Even with a pressure cooker, it takes longer to prepare a healthy meal of beans and cheap meat than to just buy fast food.
Re: You gotta love capitalism (Score:1)
To get to 1kg of sugar, you need more than 1kg of oranges, however oranges have a lot more nutrients than sugar. Fresh food including locally grown vegetables and meat is cheaper than processed, after all the companies have to process the same fresh food into processed food. I can get locally grown beef cheaper than the hotdogs in the nearby grocery store.
Re: You gotta love capitalism (Score:2)
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No, the food manufacturers aren't holding a gun to anyone's head making the eat poorly and exercise too little.
Stop the nonsense of making people not responsible for their own stupidity, laziness, and gluttony.
Ratios! (Score:2)
But labeling can be improved. "Serving size" is close to useless in comparing. Use ratios to weight wet, ratio to weight dry (minus water), and ratios to calories. Then we can compare apples to oranges and apples to pizza.
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You or I might read the whole label, most people don't.
Wouldn't matter if "serving size" were 1 chip or the whole box of bags for most.
And ratios, yes very scientific and useful.... for most slashdotter types (abnormal nerds and geeks, my middle names). You gotta be kidding me if you think average person in USA would know what to do with that info.
Didn't we find one already? (Score:3)
"A larger study analyzed 232 patients with diabetes who were placed on a plant-based diet as part of a residential dietary intervention program. More than 90% of patients were able to decrease or discontinue their diabetes medications in just 7 days while improving or maintaining control of their diabetes. A review of 14 randomized diet trials concluded that the best results occurred with plant-based diets."
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/p... [nih.gov] (Lifestyle Medicine: A Brief Review of Its Dramatic Impact on Health and Survival)
Type 1 Diabetes (Score:2)