Science / Medicine : Insulin Doses Help Children

High doses of insulin appear to at least temporarily prevent the destruction of cells in the pancreas that causes the most common form of diabetes among children. Researchers at the University of South Florida Health Sciences Center in Tampa gave 12 children who had just been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes four times the usual dose of the hormone insulin for two weeks.

Compared to 14 children with Type 1 diabetes who received normal amounts of insulin, those who received the intensive insulin appeared to have been spared the destruction of cells in the pancreas that produce insulin.

At least 500,000 children in the United States have Type 1 or insulin-dependent diabetes. The condition is caused by the lack of production of insulin by the pancreas. Insulin controls blood sugar levels.

Dr. Sharish Shah and his colleagues reported in the New England Journal of Medicine that the patients who received the high doses of insulin were producing significantly more insulin one year after the treatment than the 14 children who did not.