A team of researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Comprehensive Diabetes Centre have discovered a safe and effective novel therapy to reduce insulin requirements and hypoglycemic episodes in adult subjects with recent onset Type 1 diabetes by promoting the patient's own beta cell function and insulin production, the first such discovery to target diabetes in this manner.

The findings reveal that regular oral administration of verapamil, a common blood pressure medication first approved for medical use in 1981, enabled patients to produce higher levels of their own insulin, limiting their need for insulin injections to balance out their blood sugar levels.

The randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled human trial identified verapamil as a safe, effective, and promising therapy, a groundbreaking finding in the field of diabetes research.

According to the researchers, future long-term studies are needed to help determine the effect of verapamil on both the pediatric Type 1 diabetes population, and individuals with Type 1 diabetes who have been living with and/or diagnosed with the disease longer than three months.