Sam Brownback: “Thank you, Mr. President. Exhibit 1 ____ Type 1 Diabetics Live Without Insulin in Stem Cell Experiment Chicago, IL…”

“Thank you, Mr. President. Exhibit 1 ____ Type 1 Diabetics Live Without Insulin in Stem Cell Experiment Chicago, IL (AP).--Thirteen young diabetics in Brazil have ditched their insulin shots and need no other medication thanks to a risky, but promising treatment with their own stem cells--apparently the first time such a feat has been accomplished. ' Though too early to call it a cure, the procedure has enabled the young people, who have Type I diabetes, to live insulin-free so far, some as long as three years. The treatment involves stem cell transplants from the patients' own blood. ``It's the first time in the history of Type I diabetes where people have gone with no treatment whatsoever . . . no medications at all, with normal blood sugars,'' said study co-author Dr. Richard Burt of Northwestern University's medical school in Chicago, Illinois. While the procedure can be potentially life-threatening, none of the 15 patients in the study died or suffered lasting side effects. But it didn't work for two of them. Larger, more rigorous studies are needed to determine whether stem cell transplants could become standard treatment for people with the disease once called juvenile diabetes.”