Could the long-sought after cure for type 1 diabetes be as close as your kitchen cupboard?

An
accumulating body of scientific research appears to point in exactly that direction.
One so-called 'incurable disease' that afflicts millions of people around the world is type 1
diabetes. Unlike type 2 diabetes, where the body becomes resistant to its own insulin, type 1 is
characterized by the inability of the body to produce enough insulin, as the beta cells within the
pancreas which are responsible for the production of insulin (and the proinsulin from which it is
made) are either destroyed or seriously impaired. This can happen due to autoimmune issues,
bacterial or viral infections, incompatible foods in the diet and chemical exposures (or a
combination of any one or more of these factors), to name but a few major triggers.
And yet, plenty of peer-reviewed and published research now indicates that plant compounds,
including many found within commonly consumed foods, are capable of stimulating beta cell
regeneration within the pancreas, and as a result may be potentially provide a cure truly a four
letter word, as far as the profit-based model of medicine goes, which thrives on the concept of
the incurability of the disease-afflicted human body in favor of symptom management.
The discovery of the beta cell regenerative potential of various food and compounds is bound to
upset a burgeoning diabetes industry, with millions of dollars of public and private money
continually being poured into fund-raising efforts for a future "cure"; A cure that will presumably
be delivered through the prohibitively expensive pharmaceutical,vaccine or biologic (e.g. stem
cells, islet cell xenotransplantation) pipeline, which by the very nature of the FDA drug approval
process requires the promotion of synthetic (and therefore patentable) compounds over natural
ones.
Let's take a look at the latest preclinical study on the topic, published last month in the Canadian
Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology[1]. An active fraction of flaxseed, which researchers
named Linun usitassimum active fraction (LU6), was found to generate a wide range of benefits
in a type 1 diabetes animal model, including the following:
Improved glucose utilization in the liver
Supported normalized glycogenesis (glucose forming activity) in the liver and muscle tissue
Reduced pancreatic and intestinal glucosidase inhibitory activity, which translates into lower postmeal blood sugar elevations
Even more remarkable was the observation that this flaxseed compound normalized plasma
insulin and C-peptide levels (C peptide is not C-reactive protein, rather it is a direct indicator of
how much insulin is being produced by the beta cells in the body. Learn more), an indication that
beta cell function was effectively restored. The researchers described the truly amazing results
as follows:
Normalization of plasma insulin and C-peptide levels were observed in diabetic mice, indicating
endogenous insulin secretion after the treatment with LU6. The histochemical and
immunohistochemical analysis on pancreatic islets suggests the role of LU6 fraction in islet
regeneration and insulin secretion as evident in increase functional pancreatic islets producing
insulin. Furthermore, significant insulin producing islet formation was also observed in in vitro
PANC-1 cells after LU6 treatment, indicating the cellular aggregates to be newly formed islets.
This suggests the potential of LU6 fraction in the formation of new islets in vitro, as well as in
vivo. Thus, LU6 can be used as a nutraceutical-based first-line treatment for diabetes. [emphasis
added]