Last week, the Daily Telegraph published an article on an eight-year study which found the “the BCG vaccine… can reverse Type-1 diabetes.”
When I first saw the headline I assumed by “reverse” they meant “cure.” Instead, as you can read in the article, what it really means is “improve.” Nonetheless, the results show an reduction in A1C, a decrease in white blood cells attacking the pancreas and an increase in insulin secretion.
Dr. Denise Faustman, who led the trial at Massachusetts General Hospital, theorizes “limited BCG vaccine doses can make permanent, beneficial changes to the immune system…” It seems like they are assuming that those with T1D have a broken immune system – attacking the beta cells out of derangement. This vaccine, they propose, somehow calms down the release of suicidal white blood cells.
I think a more obvious theory for the vaccine’s success was not even mentioned: Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) is a century-old vaccination for treating tuberculosis. As I shared previously, it has been found that human beta cells and the sub-species of tuberculosis known as mycobacterium paratuberculosis (MAP) share the same protein structure. So is it just coincidence that a vaccine designed for TB is helping those wtih beta-cell deficiency?
The immune system may very well be trying to destroy a latent MAP infection. The beta cells are simply getting caught in crossfire. Furthermore, the correlation between increased consumption of foods contaminated with mycobacterium paratuberculosis (namely beef and dairy) and T1D is also hard to ignore.
Would it not be more feasible to assume that a TB vaccine is helping educate the immune system on how to destroy this latent sub-species of tuberculosis? And if so, is the vaccine a viable solution?
After eighty years of injections the article says average A1Cs dropped to 6.65% — more than % above normal. And that was still with injecting insulin. Also the record details posted on U.S. National Library of Medicine specifically state it excluded anyone with an A1C over 8.5%. At best, then, there was only a 1.85% drop in A1C.
The trial also required that participants still produced some of their own insulin (“Fasting or stimulated c-peptide between 5-200 pmol/L”). It also excluded any patients with serious complications such as kidney disease.
In other words, if you have mild T1D, with few complications, the vaccine might help a little.
I wouldn’t put too much hope into the vaccine curing T1D. “More research should, and is, being done,” admits Prof. Daniel Davis, Professor of Immunology, University of Manchester in the Daily Telegram article, “to establish definitely whether or not this could help patients with Type I diabetes, and maybe even other autoimmune diseases.”
The more useful outcome from this study (which seems to be ignored) is the support it adds to the growing collection of evidence that the primary cause of T1D isn’t a broken immune system, but instead an infection of the MAP sub-species of tuberculosis.
Which leads to the question: Why do some people have so much trouble getting rid of latent MAP? My wife and her brother are about the same age. They grew up eating the same MAP-infected foods. Why was her brother’s body able to kill off the infection, while her immune system is still firing away 40 years later?
Could heavy metal toxicity, for example, be draining the immune system such that it can’t fight off the infection? (See Mercury Attack: Can Dental Fillings Cause Type-1 Diabetes?) Could other infections (especially in the colon) be overwhelming the immune system? Could leaky gut also be further taxing the body’s defences?
The MAP infection may be behind the death of the beta cells, but a more complex army of toxins and infections may explain why the immune system hasn’t killed off the TB invaders. It’s seems a bit much for monthly jabs of a (usually toxic) bacteria-specific vaccine to combat. This may be especially true since vaccines have been shown to not produce full or lasting immunity.
I think approaches such as distilled water fasting could produce complete and permanent healing. Fasting even for 2-3 days each month boosts the immune system, increases stem cell production and eliminates toxins. In short, fasting launches a full-out attacking – not just on the evil TB commander-in-chief but all the supporting soldiers of infections and toxins.
Thinking outside the T1D Matrix,
–John C. A. Manley
P.S. For more an how fasting can boost stem cell production for growing new beta cells you can read: Fasting for Stem Cells: A Promising Cure for Type-1 Diabetes
P.P.S. Indeed, cyclic fasting has already been shown to eliminate T1D in lab mice, according to experiments at the University of Southern California led by Valter Longo PhD. You can get Dr. Lorgo’s book The Longevity Diet: Discover the New Science Behind Stem Cell Activation and Regeneration to Slow Aging, Fight Disease, and Optimize Weight from Amazon.com, Amazon.ca or Amazon.co.uk. It outlines his regimen which he claims can be done without feeling hunger (so much for old-fashioned penance.)
