Diabetes is one of the biggest health risks facing the UK.  Between 1996 and 2010 the number of people diagnosed with diabetes increased from 1.4 to 2.6 million cases - diabetes now affects nearly 5% of the UK population.  (Source: Diabetes UK).

Type 1 diabetes accounts for up to 15% of all diabetes cases and is treated by daily insulin injections (which replace the pancreatic hormone that regulates how much glucose circulates in the blood).  That means up to 130,000 people in the UK have to inject insulin every single day.

In recent research published by the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Type 1 diabetes has been shown to be converted to a non-insulin-dependent disorder, which has also eradicated some of the nasty side-effects of diabetes, like problems with eyes, kidneys and the heart.

The breakthrough has been achieved by eliminating the actions of another pancreatic hormone, glucagon.  Glucagon is a far lesser-known hormone than insulin, although the research has found that when its' actions on the body are suppressed, insulin becomes completely superfluous and its absence does not cause diabetes or any other abnormality.

The implication of the study is that without glucagon, people can't get diabetes.  In some more surprising results from the research, when test subjects consumed huge amounts of sugar and had subsequent glucose tolerance tests, blood glucose levels remained normal, irrespective of whether or not they could make insulin.

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