BCG stand for the Bacillus Calmette-Guérin, which was developed by two French scientists called Albert Calmette and Camille Guérin. After much development it was introduced in 1921 and has been used extensively as a vaccine against tuberculosis.

It seems to have a number of interesting effects on the immune system which mark it out as rather different from other vaccines. It has been used to prevent a number of other diseases, and can be of value in bladder cancer. There is now evidence that it may have a place in the treatment of some people with Type 1 diabetes.

Trials have used BCG to kill the immune cells that are responsible for destroying the insulin producing cells in the pancreas, which leads to Type 1 diabetes. Studies using mice have shown that a similar treatment results in a permanent cure for about a third animals treated in this way.

This is still a long way away from this to direct application to humans and this approach will probably be successful in only a minority of cases, but it does represent another interesting development.

Read more at www.diabetescurereview.com/BCG-vaccine.html

And don’t forget to take a look at my main website at www.DiabetesDietDoctor.com.

Yes folks, I’ve now launched the membership site, with information, a community forum and structured learning programmes for people with diabetes and their families.

Check it out right now at www.diabetesdietdoctor.com.

More and more genetic variants of diabetes such as MODY are being recognised all the time, and these are extremely important, because they open up new possibilities for early diagnosis and treatment. In particular, these advances make it clear that diabetes can no longer simply be divided into Type 1 and Type 2, and that we need to address treatment of the individual patient rather than attempt to force people into diagnostic pidgeonholes that they may not really fit.

TW