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Human Clinical Trials To Begin On Drug That Reverses Diabetes In Animal Models
Zothecula writes: A study at the University of Alabama at Birmingham has shown that verapamil, a drug widely used to treat high blood pressure, irregular heartbeat and migraine headaches, is able to completely reverse diabetes in animal models. The UAB team will now move onto clinical trials to see if the same results are repeated in humans.
What is the difference between an animal model and an animal used in scientific experimentation?
Are they talking about type 1 diabetes (lack of insulin production) or type 2 diabetes (insulin resistance)? I suspect it's type 2 because fixing a pancreas that's not producing insulin would be quite difficult if not impossible.
You do realize that diabetes is often a genetic disease linked in no way to obesity, right?
Spork
Well, this isn't quite a new low in first posts. After all, Golden Girls, Gaping nether parts and blatant misspellings are just rampant in our attempt to be the first to reply to these important and challenging topics.
But the drug's name, verapamil, is the 13th word in TFS. How long does that take to read?
Slow down Cowboy! We're here all day!
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
If the drug is already in use (for other purposes), wouldn't we be able to see its effects on people already?
Yes, and TFA makes it clear that they are focusing on Type 1 patients, so lets all STFU about how fat people are to blame for all their own problems. M'kay?
Corn subsidies keep the price of Ethanol artificially low so people don't realize how expensive that silly attempt at "renewable" energy really is.
You are missing OP's point, which is type II diabetes is typically a lifestyle/choice disease. Moderation as in, moderate eating, exercise, etc.
However, OP missed something from the article, this isn't type II, but type I diabetes!
Right, the study is enrolling people with type 1 diabetes (juvenile onset) which is typically genetic or caused by infection or other damage to the pancreas. It's type 2 diabetes (adult onset) which is thought to have some environmental cause like diet, lack of exercise or some combination of the two. High fructose corn syrup has been specifically vilified in this regard but I don't think the evidence is convincing that it is any worse than any other sugar. IMHO, it fall into the category of correlation is not causation.
From the NIH:
Genes play a significant part in susceptibility to type 2 diabetes. Having certain genes or combinations of genes may increase or decrease a person’s risk for developing the disease. The role of genes is suggested by the high rate of type 2 diabetes in families and identical twins and wide variations in diabetes prevalence by ethnicity. Type 2 diabetes occurs more frequently in African Americans, Alaska Natives, American Indians, Hispanics/Latinos, and some Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islander Americans than it does in non-Hispanic whites.
Recent studies have combined genetic data from large numbers of people, accelerating the pace of gene discovery. Though scientists have now identified many gene variants that increase susceptibility to type 2 diabetes, the majority have yet to be discovered. The known genes appear to affect insulin production rather than insulin resistance. Researchers are working to identify additional gene variants and to learn how they interact with one another and with environmental factors to cause diabetes.
Studies have shown that variants of the TCF7L2 gene increase susceptibility to type 2 diabetes. For people who inherit two copies of the variants, the risk of developing type 2 diabetes is about 80 percent higher than for those who do not carry the gene variant.1 However, even in those with the variant, diet and physical activity leading to weight loss help delay diabetes, according to the Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP), a major clinical trial involving people at high risk.
Genes can also increase the risk of diabetes by increasing a person’s tendency to become overweight or obese. One theory, known as the “thrifty gene” hypothesis, suggests certain genes increase the efficiency of metabolism to extract energy from food and store the energy for later use. This survival trait was advantageous for populations whose food supplies were scarce or unpredictable and could help keep people alive during famine. In modern times, however, when high-calorie foods are plentiful, such a trait can promote obesity and type 2 diabetes.
Incidentally, I have type 2 diabetes and my body/mass index is exactly where it should be, I'm not overweight and never have been. It doesn't just affect big people.
Never email donotemail@WeAreSpammers.com
Oh, that kind of moderation.
Would never occur to me to use the work in that particular context.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
You are missing OP's point, which is type II diabetes is typically a lifestyle/choice disease. Moderation as in, moderate eating, exercise, etc.
However, OP missed something from the article, this isn't type II, but type I diabetes!
But this isn't for Type 2. It's for Type 1... and it's been proven that moderation doesn't work for either. The disease creates the cravings that lead to the weight gain.
Type II is also genetic.
You need to get caught up.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
6 liters of soda and half a dozen bacon cheeseburgers aren't on the pyramid you fat fuck.
Actually, if you're a type 1, continued eating without insulin will cause massive weight loss. Diabetic Ketoacidosis sucks.
I'm starting to think GNU is the problem with "GNU/Linux" these days.
Clearly you don't understand how the disorder works.
You can't 'cure' type I diabetes. Pancreatic transplants are the closest thing we currently have, and they are subject to the same trouble that the native pancreas suffers - destruction of the beta islet cells due to an autoimmune response.
I'm starting to think GNU is the problem with "GNU/Linux" these days.
This isn't a "cure" per say, as you'd still have to take verapamil on a daily basis. You'd just be replacing one drug (insulin) with another (verapamil). You'd need less insulin though, and the verapamil will probably help regulate glucose levels more closely. I'm sure verapamil comes with a nice list of side effects of it's own though.
As someone with Type 1, I really want to be hopeful about this.....but it seems like we've been 5 years away from a cure for the last 30 years now.
If you post as Anonymous Coward, don't expect a reply.
Yeah. Before insulin was discovered, Type I diabetes was a death sentence.
You would effectively starve to death within a year of symptoms showing up, regardless of how much you ate. (IIRC, actual starvation could prevent/slow the progress in some way)
However, once you've been on insulin therapy for a while, eventually you'll be in trouble within hours of insulin becoming insufficient. (An especially big problem for pump users - people using long-acting insulins like Lantus probably will have 1-2 days before they're in serious trouble after stopping administration of insulin.)
This reminds me of rumors of studies a decade or so ago involving administering long-acting insulin to diabetics in their "honeymoon period" (After diagnosis and starting insulin therapy, in many cases a diabetic's requirements for injected insulin will drop to near zero after not too long, but this only lasts for a few months after it starts) - reducing load on the pancreas seemed to prolong the period, allowing them to rely on their pancreas to handle meals and such.
Of interest is the "52 people between the ages of 19 and 45 that have received a diagnosis of type 1 diabetes within the previous three months" - That's a VERY rare category of people. The most interesting is that 3 months is typically within that "honeymoon period". Diagnosis of Type I diabetes that late in life is very uncommon (which is why Type I is often called juvenile diabetes). There's also the fact that this might be far less effective on diabetics who have had the disease for years, who basically have no remaining beta cells. (In most cases, Type I diabetes in mice is artificially induced - in humans the root cause is that the immune system attacks beta cells, however, this might allow at least some of the cells to survive the onslaught by preventing a failcascade due to the cells being overworked.)
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
Yes, that's not healthy if you're diabetic. The opposite, having a high blood sugar for too long will cause major issues, blindness, gangrene etc.
Why UNIX?
How does the food pyramid exactly cause type I diabetes?
Why not just find a bunch of diabetics with HBP who have been taking this drug and see if they really still have diabetes?
TFA states this is for type 1.
20 year Type 1 diabetic (LADA) here.
In short, the first poster didn't read the article and reflects the common level of ignorance on this topic.
There is more than 2 types of diabetes,
A lot of what is considered type 1 diabetes is a constellation of diseases that have a complicated relationship with blood sugar levels, beta cell death and the immune system.
What is normally called "type 1 diabetes" occurs at birth and is an immune system defect that shares a mechanism in common with other auto immune diseases which include:
1- Rheumatoid Arthritis
2- Multiple Sclerosis
3- Scleroderma
4- Ulcerative Colitis
5- sjogren's syndrome
The above diseases along with "vanilla Type 1 diabetes" can happen to anyone and are not caused by any lifestyle choice.
There is another clinical trial using adjuvant therapy to reverse type 1 diabetes using a drug that has been in common use to inoculate against tuberculosis and to treat bladder cancer (one of the most curable cancers) since the 1920s. The drug is cheap and would be a game changer for the above diseases once the dosing schedule is worked out to reverse the auto-immune component of the disease.
There is another type of "type 1 diabetes" that occurs in adolescence and early adulthood that is very similar but has characteristics in common with type 2 diabetes:
this is normally referred to as "Latent Autoimmune Diabetes of Adults" or LADA
There is an autoimmune component, type 2 diabetes drugs that increase insulin sensitivity can help in early onset, but not enough to stop the patient from having to eventually inject insulin in order to survive. In a lot of cases doctors will prescribe insulin therapy and type 2 diabetes drugs such as Metformin to reduce insulin resistance and deal with some of the dangerous effects of such a disease on the body (kidney, retina, nerve and cardiovascular damage) that can be caused by chronic fluctuating blood sugar levels. The drug being investigated here (in the article) would probably be targeted at LADA, as it does not appear to address the auto-immune component of this type of diabetes. This still leaves out the problem of the auto-immune attack on the beta cells, so it would not be a cure, most likely but just another treatment that can save some beta cells.
type 2 diabetes is a complex issue and can be caused by lifestyle, but also can manifest due to infections, Liver disfunction, And,believe it or not an overactive pancreas that secretes too much insulin over time causing a situation of fatty liver, high cholesterol, heart disease and eventually the other issues due to high blood sugar.
I actually had a boss who, when I had hypoglycemia, walked up and snatched some of my emergency glucose treatment, out of my hand and gave me a self righteous attitude "You're eating candy! that is Why you have diabetes!" and he totally didn't understand when I filed a HR complaint against him and schooled him that,
1- My blood sugar was low
2- I take care of my disease and he is NOT educated on MY situation
and
3- He almost got punched in the face (I would have pleaded temporary insanity, per the twinkie defense)
4- My diet, diet decisions and my food are NONE of his BUSINESS!
There is SO much bad information out there concerning type 1 diabetes and so many ignorant individuals who just have no clue what is going on with this disease that get self righteous (Based on their little cartoon model of the world) about stuff they know nothing about.
I have spent 20 years studying how to manage this disease out of a grave necessity to do so to facilitate my survival.
People freak out when they find out that I workout 3 times a week, weight training and running.( I still can run a 5 minute mile at age 41!)
They also give me attitude when they find out that, due to my high metabolism, I eat every 2 hours (yes I eat 8 meals a day) and consume close to 4000 calories a day. I have to do this to maintain a healthy BMI with my lifestyle activity (I am a
And, I hope you are NEVER my nurse!!!
Go back to class and learn that Type 2 is not caused just by diet, but by metabolism and genetics and a funny thing called insulin resistance.
I exercise every day, watch my diet, take medications for my Type 2 and STILL the A1C (and weight) keeps creeping up. It is a progressive disease which has some nasty effects on the body. I am wondering when I will be required to take insulin injections as goto drugs like Janumet and Metformin don't get the job done anymore.
Now, go sign up for that continuing education class so you can learn about the disease instead of remaining ignorant about this disease.
Hell, the fact that we're using corn-based ethanol at all is probably due in large part to the subsidies - there are far more efficient crops to produce ethanol from, even if a lot of them don't grow well in much of the US (sugar cane leaps to mind)
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
Yeah, can you buy verapamil on silk road 2.0? Oh wait...
Most linux users don't know this, but the man pages were named after Chuck Norris. Chuck Norris fsck'ing hates noobs!
maybe it's the weight gain that leads to the hunger! (IE, due to hyperinsulemia the energy consumed is being partitioned to the fat cells, rather than being available for the rest of the body to use -- thus the constant hunger, despite eating more than enough calories)
Definitions change over time and new and more accurate diagnostic tests make assumptions of the past irrelevent. People often develope many auto-immune diseases later in life, the same thing in diabetes shouldn't be too surprising, likely many type I were confused with type IIs in the past simply because we didn't have tests to accurately differentiate them.
Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
fixing one of the feedback loops goes a long way to fixing type2 diabetes as well. All the pithy remarks doesn't help if your body is screaming at you "eat something damnit!!!" and starts undergoing the same sicknesses exhibited by starvation.
maybe it's the weight gain that leads to the hunger! (IE, due to hyperinsulemia the energy consumed is being partitioned to the fat cells, rather than being available for the rest of the body to use -- thus the constant hunger, despite eating more than enough calories)
Imagine being a heroine addict. Then imagine having to quit your addiction while there's a heroin vending machine 30feet from your desk that accepts quarters. That's the situation people with this disease are in.
I'm addicted to heroines too, my favorite is Elsa.
(kidding.) Yes, I know the feeling. Mom: diabetic, Sister: diabetic. Grandparents: diabetic. Me:pre-diabetic.
Zero carb dieting is the only thing that alleviates the constant panicky cravings for food when the hypoglycemia hits.
Of interest is the "52 people between the ages of 19 and 45 that have received a diagnosis of type 1 diabetes within the previous three months"
I imagine minors are excluded based on the many legal issues of research on minors rather than an expectation that it can't work on younger patients.
Actually, it can be even worse. Unlike heroine addicts who can (from a medical standpoint) choose never to self-inject anything again, type II diabetics don't have the option of just not eating anything ever again.
and obesity can increase insulin resistance.
as much as type 2's want to deny it, obesity is very much linked to their disease. increased insulin resistance due to obesity can make it progress faster and exhibit symptoms of diabetes sooner. you are right, by itself, obesity is not the cause but there is still a correlation to obesity.
i am type 1. we also have to watch for insulin resistance. everyone also seems to think we are type 2's.
https://www.drfuhrman.com/dise... ... With proper care, a type 1 diabetic can live a long and healthy life, with almost no risk of heart attack, stroke, or complications. Type 1 diabetics need not feel doomed to a life of medical disasters and a possible early death. With a truly health-supporting Nutritarian lifestyle, even the Type 1 diabetic can have the potential for a disease-free life and a better than average life expectancy. I find that when Type 1 diabetics adopt my high-nutrient dietary approach, they reduce their insulin requirements by at least one half. They protect their body against the heart attack promoting effects of the American diet style. They no longer have swings of highs and lows, their weight remains stable, and their glucose levels and lipids stay under excellent control. Even though the Type 1 diabetic will still require exogenous (external) insulin, they will no longer need excessive amounts of it. Remember, it is not the Type 1 diabetes that is so damaging, it is the SAD, the typical dietary advice given to Type 1s and the excessive amounts of insulin required by the SAD that are so harmful. It is simply essential for all Type 1 diabetics to learn and adopt nutritional excellence; they can use much less insulin, achieve a normal, healthy lifespan and dramatically reduce their risk of complications later in life."
https://www.drfuhrman.com/libr...
"Treating Type 1, Type 2, and Gestational Diabetes with Superior Nutrition
An important aspect is getting enough micronutrients and fiber, which were not mentioned in your post (but you may well do).
He also has a book out on it:
http://www.drfuhrman.com/shop/...
"This New York Times best seller offers a scientifically proven, practical program to prevent and reverse [type 2] diabetes -- without drugs. Diabetes does not have to shorten your life span or result in high blood pressure, heart disease, kidney failure, blindness or other life-threatening ailments. In fact, most type 2 diabetics can get off medication and become 100 percent healthy in just a few simple steps. This book offers no compromises, it is the most aggressive and effective approach to reverse obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and heart disease; which typically accompany type 2 diabetes. The information about Type 1 diabetes is simply life saving. It is a must read for every diabetic, as well as any nutritionally-aware person wanting to understand the failure of conventional medical care for diabetic treatments and the "no-brainer" of using nutritional excellence, not drugs."
Another aspect of this may be gut bacteria. You don't drink diet soda by any chance?
http://www.prevention.com/heal...
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesa...
Ongoing research on vitamin D deficiency and diabetes:
http://www.nih.gov/news/health...
BTW, in general, I've heard that exercise, while good for our health, does not help with weight loss because we just eat more afterwards to make up for it. What controls weight in the long term is what we eat, especially micronutrients and fiber, but also good fats and some other things.
Anyway, thanks for the informative post! Glad you found an approach that works for you. Good luck. I helped manage my mother's diabetes for a time (including for a time after my father died giving her injections three times a day and monitoring blood glucose with finger sticks four times a day) and it was not easy (she had dementia and could not do it herself, and even denied she had diabetes sometimes). As you point ou
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
"Get rid of corn subsidies and watch your obesity/diabestes epidemic grind to a halt."
http://www.seriouseats.com/200...
"The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine has posted an easy-to-understand visual on its site that shows which foods U.S. tax dollars go to support under the nation's farm bill. It's titled "Why Does a Salad Cost More Than a Big Mac?" and depicts two pyramids -- subsidized foods and the old recommended food pyramid. It's interesting to note that the two are almost inversely proportional to each other."
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
Slashdot may usually be progressive technologically (sometimes even too progressive in some ways), but it can be backward/conservative in other ways (especially regurgitating mainstream medicine's party line, which is why your amusing-to-me over-generalization got modded flamebait). Obviously, there is still a lot of variety here, so this is just an observation on trends...
A couple things on that tangent: ... ..."
http://www.disciplined-minds.c...
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09...
"They say they believe in freedom and share our values. They say a few bad apples shouldn't bring down judgment on their entire kind. Don't be fooled. Though they walk among us with impunity, they are, in the words of Henry Farrell, a political scientist at George Washington University, "a group that is notoriously associated with terrorist violence and fundamentalist political beliefs."
They are engineers.
Farrell, of course, was kidding. He posted that comment on a blog shortly after Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab (confessed Al Qaeda operative and engineering student) tried to blow up an airliner over Detroit last winter. But the satire was rooted in a statistical fact: in the ranks of captured and confessed terrorists, engineers and engineering students are significantly overrepresented. Maybe that's a numerological accident. The sociologist Diego Gambetta and the political scientist Steffen Hertog don't think so.
Gambetta and Hertog found engineers only in right-wing groups -- the ones that claim to fight for the pious past of Islamic fundamentalists or the white-supremacy America of the Aryan Nations (founder: Richard Butler, engineer) or the minimal pre-modern U.S. government that Stack and Bedell extolled.
Among Communists, anarchists and other groups whose shining ideal lies in the future, the researchers found almost no engineers. Yet these organizations mastered the same technical skills as the right-wingers. Between 1970 and 1978, for instance, the Baader-Meinhof gang in Germany staged kidnappings, assassinations, bank robberies and bombings. Seventeen of its members had college or graduate degrees, mostly in law or the humanities. Not one studied engineering.
The engineer mind-set, Gambetta and Hertog suggest, might be a mix of emotional conservatism and intellectual habits that prefers clear answers to ambiguous questions -- "the combination of a sharp mind with a loyal acceptance of authority." Do people become engineers because they are this way? Or does engineering work shape them? Itâ(TM)s probably a feedback loop of both, Gambetta says.
Much of medicine is filled with ambiguity (if you ignore nutritional missteps being at the root of much chronic disease that plays out in a variety of different symptoms). Much of the rest of disease is related to lifestyle or environment (e.g. leaded gas causing the past few decades of increasing crime, now dropping as leaded gas has been banned). As Dr. Fuhrman says, genes may give us weak links, but whether they get pulled on to the breaking point is a function of diet and lifestyle and environment. That is not the sort of thing engineers are going to like to here... They want a quick answer prescribed by an authority like a drug. Dr. Fuhrman calls prescriptions for drugs like blood pressure medicine or diabetes-related medicines for type II diabetics as "permission slips" by authority to continue with current bad behavior regarding diet, lifestyle, and environment. Likewise, getting the label of "bad genes" is another permission slip for misbehavior... Not saying some people don't get dealt a much worse hand of cards in terms of genes, family habits, and environment than others... Still, consider how so much of life is what we make of it:
"An Afternoon with comedian Brett Leake '82"
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
I am extremely aware of the post-transplant requirements and complications, as my father was post-transplant (kidney and pancreas) and towards the end of his life I was one of his main caregivers.
I'm starting to think GNU is the problem with "GNU/Linux" these days.
Speaking of idiots...
Diet has a 0% cure rate for type I (which they are talking about) and isn't nearly as effective as you seem to think for type II.
You would effectively starve to death within a year of symptoms showing up, regardless of how much you ate. (IIRC, actual starvation could prevent/slow the progress in some way)
Well from a purely theoretical point of view:
it could be possible to survive on a low-carb diet, eating only proteins and fats and avoiding sugar completely.
Basically, eating only steak and salad, never bread.
(The kind of diet that bodybuilders use).
In that situation the body obtains most of its energy by burning fat and maintains blood sugar levels by gluconeogenesis.
(This metabolic regime consumes some proteins, hence the increase need of meat to avoid starvation).
But it's complicated to get correctly.
Compensating the Type 1's lack of insulin is much simpler.
That's what some think early human diet looked like before agriculture (the theory basis behind the paleo diet). /. recently.
That's also used by body builders to burn fat (as mentionned above).
Before insulin that was the only way to keep Type 1 diabetics alive.
It was also recently been mentionned as a insuline-free alternative treatment. Was mentionned on
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
It does not. It causes type II.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
This is slashdot. Functional illiteracy here is even higher than in the general population, and there are a lot of extreme Dunning-Kruger cases here.
This is not a new effect, though:
Whenever an obviously well founded statement is made... by a person specially
well acquainted with the facts, that unlucky person is instantly and
frantically contradicted by all the people who obviously know nothing about
it. – George Bernard Shaw
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
Can there be a real cure for diabetes? The glucose eaten can only have a few destinations:
What can we expect from a drug? Moving more glucose to fat storage? It is better than diabetes, but still much less desirable result than eating less carbs..
They say that the effect was transient. Are you really going to inject yourself with BCG vaccine for the rest of your life?
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
This drug treats a specific cause of Type-1 diabetes (inability to produce enough insulin). Type-1 accounts for about 5-10% of diabetes diagnoses and is not preventable. Type-2 is the other type, where the body can't properly use the insulin (also called insulin resistance). Type-2 can be usually be prevented or delayed with a healthy lifestyle, including maintaining a healthy weight, eating sensibly, and exercising regularly.
Genetic predisposition, with environmental triggers is how I've seen it described. I'm already 10 years past my father's diagnosis of diabetes. But he was an overweight alcoholic. HFCS is a red herring. Yes, everyone with it was exposed a lot. 100% also drank milk or formula as a baby.
Learn to love Alaska
It doesn't even do that.
Learn to love Alaska
What myth?
Learn to love Alaska
We get it, you're just "big boned", it's not your fault.
Thankfully your faulty genes also greatly reduce your likelihood of reproducing, reducing the burden on future generations of both your medical and mental genetic weaknesses. In many ways Type 2 is a self-correcting condition...it'll just takes a few generations to make a substantial correction.
My
The first thing they teach you is to watch your diet and to exercise and monitor your glucose levels. When that approach fails, what other cause is there?
The fact that YOU have patients that continue to eat poorly and don't exercise is not an environment thing - it's laziness or they are simply tired of nothing working and have a nurse that doesn't understand their disease but pretends they do. I bet you probably smoke also, right?
Show me the "environmental" factors that can cause Type 2 to flair up. I exhibited no symptoms when I was 160 pounds at age 21. I am 6 ft 1. I fought semi-professionally, cycled, rock-climbed and ran long distance (trained for marathons). I developed the disease regardless. The only mitigating factor is that for four years, I led a more sedentary life onboard a navy ship where I couldn't do all that and performed the equivalent of shift work. Still it was another 20 years, after I got out, before I was diagnosed. I had regained a more active lifestyle.
The only extraordinary environmental factors that I was exposed to might be nerve agents, depleted uranium and experimental vaccines during Desert Storm. When you can drop down 20 pounds in the first several months, monitor and control caloric intake, increase activity only to have it go back up a few months later? Let me tell you, pal, it's a pisser. And, it's not diet as you indicate.
Short of sucking out the fat cells, there is little anyone can do to stop regaining the weight as the glucose that is not processed by the cells go straight to the fat cells and keep flooding the body with more glucose. So, yes, obesity and Type 2 go hand in hand caused by the cell's inability to utilize the insulin it produces - it's a Catch-22 type scenario called "insulin resistance".
As somebody else pointed out, Type 1's on insulin can develop it also. Prior to insulin injections, these folks would just waste away. Now, they can have the benefits of both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Lucky them.
Prevented my ass. It can be delayed at best. I have several people with Type-2 in my family and most of them never were fat to begin with and did a lot of physical exercise. Also it is possible to get diabetic from viral, bacterial, fungal, or parasitic induced diseases which cause pancreatitis.
I'm pretty sure it is worse than that. The feeling of starvation is an extreme motivator.
"One thing about diabetics - we are expensive."
And this is the reason why we do not have a cure yet. Treating the disease is orders of magnitude more profitable than a cure.
I'll agree, they are directly linked, but you have the cause and effect backwards. Insulin resistance causes you to get fat.
Personally I have never met a vegan who could be considered even remotely healthy. Hell, most of the vegetarians I have met have been rather unhealthy.
Face it, the human body evolved to eat primarily meat, some fruit and vegetables, and not bread. Unfortunately bread is delicious.