IOH diabetes and pancreas transplant information



		Islets of Hope



		About Pancreas Transplants The Pancreas Pancreas Transplant Partial Pancreas Transplant Types of Pancreas Transplant Surgery Complications Prognosis Pancreatic islet transplant information links What is a pancreas? Islet Functions Transplant Research Developments Transplantation: Benefits, Risks, and Obstacles Immunosuppression Drugs More Information Gary Scheiner, CDE Think Like a Pancreas: Many books offer advice on managing diabetes, but few focus specifically on the day-to-day issues facing those who use insulin. Scheiner, a certified diabetes educator and himself an insulin user himself since 1985, gives you the tools to "think like a pancreas"--that is, to successfully master the art and science of matching insulin to the body’s ever-changing needs. Free of medical mumbo jumbo, comprehensive, and packed with useful information not readily available in other books, Think Like a Pancreas discusses: day-to-day blood glucose control and monitoring, designing an insulin program, measuring insulin to carbohydrate intake and physical activity , pluses and minuses of different insulin-delivery methods, optimal management of diabetes using an insulin pump, hypoglycemia—the best ways to avoid it and treat it , the impact of emotions, stress, illness, and aging , making the best use of your health care team and community resources , plus dozens of other issues that everyone taking insulin needs to understand and master. IOH Rating 5/5				main Research page Diabetes research, clinical trials, study links What's new in pancreas transplantation? Read article disclaimer According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), "Each year, approximately 1,300 people with type 1 diabetes receive whole-organ pancreas transplants. After a year, 83 percent of these patients, on average, have no symptoms of diabetes and do not have to take insulin to maintain normal glucose concentrations in the blood. However, the demand for transplantable pancreases outweighs their availability. To prevent the body from rejecting the transplanted pancreas, patients must take powerful drugs that suppress the immune system for their entire lives, a regimen that makes them susceptible to a host of other diseases." Stem Cell Information: Section 7, Stem Cells and Diabetes, (NIH) Headlines in Pancreas Transplants Pancreatic Cancer Tied to Insulin Woes - Insulin Problems May Make Pancreatic Cancer More Likely: Dec. 13, 2005 -- A new study links insulin problems to greater odds of developing pancreatic cancer. ... Insulin is a hormone. It's made by the pancreas and it's necessary for the body to be able to use blood sugar (glucose) for fuel. ... Insulin resistance occurs when there are elevated levels of glucose despite the presence of insulin. The body becomes resistant to the insulin available and strives to make more in order to counter the elevated glucose levels. Insulin resistance can lead to type 2 diabetes. Pancreatic cancer is the number 4 cause of cancer deaths in the U.S. By Miranda Hitti, WebMD Medical News, December 13, 2005 Links To Pancreas Transplant Information Sites TransplantBuddies.org - Message board community for discussing general transplant information, and board especially for youth, and specific types of transplants. Also, resources links. National Transplant Assistance Fund - "Your financial link to transplantation..." State-by-state guide to transplant centers Transplant Foundation, Inc. Deb Butterfield Showdown With Diabetes: Butterfield was diagnosed with diabetes at age 10; at age 34 she received a successful pancreas/kidney transplant, and was cured of the disease. Five years later, Butterfield takes only small daily oral doses of immunosuppressive drugs to prevent organ rejection, and she is the director of the Insulin-Free World Foundation, devoted to finding cures for diabetes. Here she first chronicles her own struggle with the disease and then offers similarly affected readers a thorough, up-to-date guide to current research and future possibilities for their own cures. Butterfield makes crystal clear from the outset that the burden of having diabetes is "grossly underestimated'' by medical professionals and the general public. Butterfield rejects out of hand the standard establishment line (see Touchette, below) that careful disease management leads to healthy living. Despite her adhering religiously to her treatment regimen, "within a four-year period diabetes killed the nerves below my knees, caused bleeding in the back of my eyes, the amputation of part of a toe, a skin graft''and that was before the kidney failure and heart attack that finally led to her transplant operation. As Butterfield points out, the focus of diabetes research has been management; her mission is to refocus onto finding cures. This is a forceful, eloquent, engrossing, and ultimately convincing argument.



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