How a pancreas transplant can cure diabetes

A diabetes diagnosis means the body cannot regulate blood sugar due to inadequate insulin production from the pancreas — a long, flat gland that sits behind the stomach in the upper abdomen. The results for a patient with diabetes can be vision loss, and nerve and damage to other organs, unless blood sugar is controlled using medication or the patient undergoes a pancreas transplant.

"A pancreas transplant is the only cure for diabetes. It does not control diabetes. It cures diabetes," says Dr. Tambi Jarmi, a transplantation medicine physician at Mayo Clinic. "I find myself having a hard time convincing a diabetic patient after they receive the pancreas transplant that they are cured ― they're not diabetic. They don't believe it."
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