With regard to type 2 Diabetes , once the pancreas stops producing Insulin, why is it irreversible?

Answer 1

I believe you're mistaken in thinking that the pancreas stops producing insulin in Type 2 diabetics. This is more or less the process that happens in Type 1 diabetics ... the autoimmune system believes the pancreas is a foreign body and sets out to destroy the insulin producing Islets of Langerhans.

What tends to happen in Type 2 diabetics is that their body becomes resistant to the effects of insulin that they produce.

Because the cells are no longer able to accept insulin in order to promote the creation of energy, it believes there isn't enough insulin being produced. This makes the pancreas then produce more insulin which, in turn, creates more insulin resistance.

Whichever Type of diabetes you are referring to, the reason it is irreversible is because the Islet cells are destroyed. Having said that, there are current operations being performed where islet cells are being transplanted into diabetic patients' liver, an area of the body that is rich in oxygen where, hopefully, the cells will bed themselves in and start to produce insulin again. Sadly, success, at the moment, doesn't seem to be a long-term thing, often resulting in the diabetic patient needing insulin injections again. There are also experiments going on with the use of stem cells in an attempt to produce new islet cells, but it may well be some time off before fruition.

Answer 2

With type 2 diabetes the pancreas doesn't stop producing insulin, you just become resistant to insulin so it doesn't work so well. With type 1 it stops producing it all together (v quickly - it's not like type 2 that can take years to develop) - it's an autoimmune disease where your insulin producing cells die. This is why type 2s can be treated by diet or tablets before insulin and type 1s are always only treated with insulin - usually 4 or 5 injections a day or being attached to a pump 24-7 for our whole lives! (usually since childhood!) Type 2 is only reversible to a point - once you've got it you've always have it however much you change your life style, it will degenerate again eventually (sorry!).

Answer 3

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RE:
With regard to type 2 Diabetes , once the pancreas stops producing Insulin, why is it irreversible?

Answer 4

I think you are thinking of type I diabetes.

Type II diabetes involves insulin resistance. That means that the pancreas still makes insulin, but the other tissues no longer respond to it - they are said to be insulin resistant. The usual treatment involves giving drugs that restore, or at least increase, the response to the insulin that is being made, along with modification of the diet.

Type I diabetes, in contrast, involves the death of the beta pancreatic cells which make insulin. It is thought that they die due to a sort of malfunction of the body's immune system - the white blood cells accidentally think the beta cells are foreign, and so the WBCs kill the beta cells. Obviously, once the cells are killed, they can make no more insulin, and that is why the process is irreversible. This is why type I diabetes is treated by administration of insulin, instead of the kinds of drugs that treat Type II diabetes.

Diabetes is very common - both kinds - and so if you need more information, I am sure there is a ton available on line.

Good luck.

Answer 5

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Answer 6

Well, this is not a very scientific answer, but the consensus is that the insulin resistance of T2 diabetes causes the pancreas to work overtime trying to produce enough insulin. Eventually it wears out.

This is why there is controversy around using meds that increase insulin output - the sulfonylureas. There is some evidence that using these meds eventually causes the pancreas to wear out. Some schools of though are emerging on the side of giving insulin to T2 diabetics earlier on (when other oral meds don't work), so that the pancreas can have a break.

Answer 7

I believe that once it stops functioning, it can't be brought back to its original state. That is why insulin is need to either take the place of what the pancreas did or stimulate it to produce some. I am a type 2 diabetic and this is how my endocrinologist has explained it to me. In type 1, there are certain people who can have a pancreas transplant. Bur type 2 still produce some insulin on their own.

Answer 8

when you have type 1 the pancreas stops producing insuling and cant start to work again as there is to much damage been done there is a study being done at the mo where people have have taken pills and the pancreas has worked normal 4 months some only weeks no more needles great but might not be available on the nhs type 2 is where only a small amount of damage has been done and it still lets out insulin lets hope there is a cure found 1 day

Answer 9

The pancreas does not stop producing insulin in type 2 diabetes. In fact insulin levels may be raised. What happens is that the body becomes increasingly insulin resistant.

Answer 10

The reason why it is irreversible is because once the pancreatic cells do not function, they do not reproduce new cells to make insulin. In addition to the lack of insulin being produced, some people continue to produce insulin, but the body does not respond to the insulin anymore, or does not produce enough. In Type 1, it is an auto immune type disease where the Langerhan cells are destroyed. Once they are destroyed, no insulin is produced.