A ‘cure’ for type 1 diabetes? Dr Eli Lewis on holy grail trail
(EDITOR’S NOTE: For parents of children newly diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, Prof Lewis does not see patients individually. He suggests that parents show this link to the doctor treating their child: http://www.lewislab.net/Teachi
DIABETES is not always the chronic progressive condition most doctors and dietitians believe it to be. Both type 1 and type 2 diabetes are shown to improve with diet. Now Israeli biochemistry and pharmacology professor Dr Eli Lewis could be changing the landscape even further for type 1 diabetics.
Here’s the background to his research on a new compound to treat the condition. It could be as close to a ‘cure’ as modern medicine is able to come. This is an update on a Q&A I had with him earlier this year.
By Marika Sboros
Dr Eli Lewis, professor of clinical biochemistry and pharmacology at Ben Gurion University of the Negev in Israel, just may have stumbled across one of modern medicine’s most enduring holy grails: a way to reverse type 1 diabetes safely and effectively. Better still, he says, the natural compound he uses to treat the condition has no negative side effects at the dose and duration he uses in his research.
Lewis’s research is on tissue damage that plays a role in type 1 diabetes. He says scientists have often overlooked and understudied this area. He came across it when he began researching the role of inflammation in injured islets back in 2003.
