Type 1 Diabetes Blog

While this blog is dedicated to health, every once in a while politics try and creep into life saving and the development of technologies that hold promise to save lives. Such is the recent case, with George W. Bush vetoing the recent stem cell bill that has passed both house and senate. It basically proves that Bush is just completely out of line with America and in his own little morally run world.

I have heard several of his speeches that relate to the stem cell “debate”. He is basically holding back all funding for stem cells, which is making the entire industry cautious to invest. Capital won’t flow into the Stem Cell industry with someone like Bush in office. It is too risky. It might be outlawed and there is no federal money there to increase the feasibility. And so America falls woefully behind so Bush can save his little clumps of cells and so he can appeal to his demographic which is thankfully dwindling. His approval rating is hitting all time lows and he is going to slink out of office in a couple years so that someone can come in and reverse his stem cell decisions. And I can’t wait.

So here is the Bush challenge. I challenge Mr. Bush to go in front of a couple Juvenile Diabetics and tell them that they will have to suffer and live with the consequences of this awful disease, not to mention the financial burden, so that some clumps of cells don’t come into existence that scientists can study. Clumps of cells! And we would rather have clumps of cells alive rather than to have cures for diseases. Horray Mr Bush! You saved some cells diseases!

PR Newswire today has an interesting read about a study recently done that shows how 80 Billion dollars of the federal governments money goes to treat people with diabetes. The staggering number shows just how large of a scourge is afoot.

There are approximately 20 million diabetics in the united states and that number is supposed to double by 2025. The cost of diabetes is certainly not going to go down if no steps are taken to change the system.

Again I think this is where some alternative treatments could bring that cost down. If people were not just prescribed drugs to lower cholesterol, blood pressure, etc and were instead given a personal trainer and some vitamins/supplements I think the associated health risks for diabetes related problems would drop and the diabetes related spending as well. The thinking needs to shift away from allowing people to think pills will solve their problem, away from spending monies on finding a “cure” (at least for type 2 diabetics. It is still worthwhile to find a cure for type 1,  it is an autoimmune disease), and move towards finding ways to get people motivated, healthy and interested in taking steps to reduce side effects of diabetes.

I wish doctors would prescribe personal trainers and salads as opposed to Avandia.

Dexcom is already has one continuous glucose monitor on the market, so what is the big deal? Well, recently the FDA approved SEVEN which is Dexcom’s seven day continuous glucose monitor. The sensors last more than twice as long which means that it costs less than half as much.

Continuous glucose monitoring is really the holy grail of Type 1 Diabetes. It is actually more important than having an insulin pump, because knowing when your blood sugar is high or low requires a finger stick and a blood to be placed on a small test strip. That is hard to do when you are asleep. And if your blood sugar goes low when you are asleep it is very dangerous. I know from experience, and many times I start to get low blood sugar in my dreams and that is when I know that I need to get up and eat something. These continuous glucose monitors have a simple alarm that would wake you up when your sugar gets below a certain preset level.

Insurance companies still will not pay for a continuous glucose monitor. While I don’t like US health insurance companies in general, I sometimes have a hard time blaming them for something like this because Dexcom, Minimed and the other big pharma players that make a CGMS charge quite a lot for it. The Dexcom starter kit is $800 which isn’t too bad, but their sensors are a whopping $35/per! Considering that they only last 3 days, that is over $10 bucks a day in additional expenses that are not covered by any insurance company as they are waiting for studies to show how useful they are for diabetic complications. They should really just start paying for these things ASAP because they will prevent short term diabetic complications with low-blood sugar which probably costs them a boatload in hospitalization expenses.

And here is yet another drug that is getting some heat from the blogosphere and traditional media outlets for improper marketing and overlooking serious side effects that the drug is actually supposed to prevent. The final resolution is that GlaxoSmithKline’s Avandia will receive a “black box” warning label on the bottle stating that it might increase the risk of congestive hear failure, something that diabetics are seriously at risk for in the first place.

If only there was more sensationalism for things like Pomegranates which have recently shown to have anti-atherosclerosis properties. A vast majority of the drugs I read about on the market today attempt to lower cholesterol, reduce atherosclerosis and generally slow the progression of something like that. But to actually reduce it is unheard of, and there was a great study done in Israel showing that is exactly what Pomegranate Supplementation can do.

While some of these drugs might have their place for people in serious conditions, a majority of diabetics should get on this supplement to prevent and reverse what damage has been done so far. It just really gets me that doctors usually don’t talk about a very powerful aspect of good diabetic care which should be preventing damage done to the body by having elevated blood glucose.

In an amazing study done by Dr. Michael Demetriou at the University of California Irvine, a glucosamine like dietary supplement has suppressed the damaging autoimmune response that causes Type 1 Diabetes in a mouse model. The study delves deeper into how sugars such as the N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc) used in the study, interact with the surface of T-Cells. It is believed that changes to these sugars on the surface of T-Cells give rise to autoimmune disease, such as Type-1 Diabetes and Multiple Sclerosis. Here is the complete story- Glucosamine-Like Supplement Inhibits Multiple Sclerosis, Type 1 Diabetes.

Studies such as this one simply amaze me because they are so ground breaking and yet there is no press for such studies. I am going to keep a very close eye on any more developments in this area of research because it is so important to find a way to heal the misguided T-Cells that cause Type 1 Diabetes that attack the insulin producing cells of the pancreas. One of the most promising areas of research for a cure, in my opinion, is in first treating the core of the disease- misguided T-Cells and then allowing the islet cells to heal themselves. One of my favorite Diabetes researchers, and one who is closest to having a cure is Denise Faustman at the Massachusetts General Hospital. Her research into Islet Regeneration demonstrates that once you can retrain T-Cells to stop the autoimmune response that causes Type 1 Diabetes in the first place, then you can allow the islet cells to naturally regenerate. The mechanism for regeneration is still under study, but it is thought to be related to stem cells coming from the spleen. Now Denise Faustman is busy trying to get her clinical trials underway, which should start in the fall of 2008 if us Diabetics are lucky.

It is amazing sometimes what research goes undiscovered for diseases that kill so many people. To a large degree, that is the sole reason that I started this blog. I wanted to create a place where people can see the actual research. Too many supplements and herbs are over hyped on the Internet with the promise of cures and miracle results. While that kind of marketing is misleading, what people need to realize is that there is real hard science behind certain claims about supplements, vitamins and herbs.

While at my local healthfood store the other day my friend there told me about Pomegranate Juice and atherosclerosis, which is something that all diabetics should be concerned about. The hardening of the arteries really causes problems to diabetics, as high blood sugars can lead to atherosclerosis. At least that is my current understanding.

The study was done in Israel in 2004, and demonstrated an actual reduction in carotid intimamedia thickness by up to 30%. That is astounding research that needs more investigation and more exposure in the media. An actual reduction in the thickness of the arteries really gives me hope that the debilitating and deadly side effects of arteries becoming clogged can not only be prevented but reversed. And it is all done by a common fruit!

The Scientific American has an interesting article about exercise and glucose tolerance.

The study demonstrated a 25-30% improvement in glucose tolerance after just 3 months of strength training. Type 1 diabetics that regularly work out such as myself probably inherently know this because you can see such a noticeable difference in sugars after a good workout. Personally, I know that my sugars go down for about 2 days after a really good workout. The study also briefly mentions the importance of high quality protein which is all related to a good diabetic diet.

It is good to see studies such as this one that underline how diabetes really should be treated which is primarily through diet and exercise, and then secondarily with medication.

Debiotech has recently announced that they have found a manufacturing partner for their disposable, tiny insulin pump. The pump itself is great- about one quarter the size of the standard Minimed pump that is on the market now. This new one uses MEM’s technology and can deliver very precise amounts of insulin.

I am pretty excited about this as it could fit right onto the skin and would be concealable under the clothing. Carrying around the insulin pump makes me feel more like a cyborg than anything else and gets in the way when I try to do certain things. Insulin pumps are pretty necessary however as continuous glucose infusion just offers much better control than injections.

The Debiotech website has more information about the Nanopump as I believe it is called.

It looks like there was a study in Brazil where they took some newly diagnosed Type 1 Diabetics and then reintroduced stem cells from their bone marrow. It was successful in that these kids were allowed to live insulin free for up to 36 months which was the length of the trial.

 Medical News Today has the complete story.