By Evan Stehwien, Type 1 Diabetic since age 5 (www.quora.com) Basically, we don’t have the technology to replace an organ yet. Type 1 diabetes comes about when the body stops producing insulin, because the immune system destroys the beta cells in the pancreas. In order to cure T1D, you need to get the body to produce its own insulin again. Transplants seem like a good idea. Take functioning beta cells, if you can find 2–3 donors, and put them in the diabetic person. However, the body’s immune system is really good at destroying things that come from outside the body. Anyone who receives a transplant needs to take a combination of immunosuppresive drugs for the rest of their life. Replacing one life-long medicine with another doesn’t seem like a cure to me, and that’s ignoring the side effects on one’s kidneys and rather dismal rate of success. After 1 year, 42% of patients were back on insulin, and that number only gets higher as the years go on. Transplants aren’t a viable
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