Millions of people suffer from Type 1 diabetes, which can be a devastating condition that impacts almost every aspect of your life. While medications have come a long way toward managing the disease, they have not been able to cure it.

According to a new study, however, that may be changing.

The team of researchers in China came up with a treatment that used the patients own stem cells to help produce insulin on her own, actually reversing the condition.

The patient in the study was a 25-year-old woman, and she discussed the treatment in an interview with Nature, where she said:

“I can eat sugar now. I enjoy eating everything – especially hotpot.”

The treatment essentially reprogrammed her own stem cells so that her body would produce insulin like someone who does not have Type 1 Diabetes.

This was done by taking adult cells from the patient, and then coaxing them back to being stem cells. Stem cells have the ability to transform into any cell or tissue in the body. From there, they exposed the stem cells to chemicals that caused them to form into islet cells, which are key cells in the pancreas that make insulin.

Finally, they cultured about 1.5 million of these cells and put them into the woman’s stomach muscles. The cells were placed in this part of the body so that the researchers could better observe them with an MRI.

Within three months of the treatment, she no longer required insulin injections because her body was producing it on its own. A year later, the researchers note that her body is working just like she were never a diabetic.

This study included three patients, all of which experienced positive results. The researchers are hoping to be able to conduct a much larger study to continue to prove this treatment method and ensure its safety.

If the results continue to be promising like this, it could mean a cure for diabetes in the not so distant future.

Curing diabetes would be life changing for millions.

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