Researchers close to new ways to prevent Juvenile Diabetes, sometimes known as Type 1 diabetes

While the majority of diabetics suffer from Type 2 Diabetes, which limits the body's ability to produce insulin or to properly use the insulin it does produce, at least 1 million people in the U.S. and many more around the world suffer from Type 1 Diabetes. Although Type 1 is also known as Juvenile Diabetes, it also strikes adults. Type 1 is an autoimmune disease, which means the body's own immune system turns against it, destroying its ability to produce natural insulin. This can lead eventually to fainting, blindness, heart disease, loss of limbs, and in extreme cases death.

Juvenile diabetes has up to now been a major challenge for medical researchers, who have been able to do little to fight it. Some promising drugs in the past have had to be abandoned because they proved too toxic.

However, a new class of immunosuppressant drugs are now being looked at by the research community, and there is great optimism that these may prevent people whose family history puts them at risk for diabetes juvenile. In those who have already developed juvenile diabetes, the new class of drugs hold out promise of alleviating the effects. Although not a cure, the results would probably lead to a better ability to control blood sugar and reduce risks of complications.

As with all clinical trials, however, the process is slow and it is not currently known when the several trials underway for current sufferers of juvenile diabetes will produce actual solutions that can be used by diabetics. Still, it's a step in the right direction.