LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) - Diabetes patients at Yoakum County Hospital are receiving a treatment providers say uses insulin as a hormone rather than a drug.

Physiologic Insulin Resensitization, or PIR, is drawing in patients from across the South Plains to Denver City.

Family medicine doctor Lynda Odom said the therapy is not focused solely on chasing blood sugars, but on the symptoms diabetes causes over time."What we're trying to do is recreate how the pancreas normally should work," Odom said.