Diabetes is a disease that can’t be cured yet; it can only be controlled. Part of the control is with your diet, and carbohydrate and caloric intake, so you need to be able to figure this out. If your diabetes is being controlled by insulin, it’s essential that you understand the numbers behind your blood glucose (sugar) levels and the amount of insulin you must take every day.
Unfortunately, not everyone does well in arithmetic or math in school, or may  be educated. This can prove to be a significant stumbling block for proper control of diabetes. Interestingly, much has been …read more

Here’s some exciting news for diabetics. In fact, the more I read about diabetes treatment these days, the more excited I become. A group of researchers took non-obese diabetic mice which had recently developed Type 1 diabetes, and injected them with an “anti-CD3 monoclonal antibody for five days, followed by transplantation of embryonic pancreatic tissue, and, for short-term glucose control, implantation of a subcutaneous insulin pellet.”

Most of the mice maintained normal blood sugars after the removal of the insulin pellet. The transplanted cells were shown to migrate to the pancreas of the test subjects.
Is this a cure …read more

We’ve talked about Brenda Novak here before during our “Putting a Face on Diabetes” segment. Brenda’s son is diabetic and for five years she has worked tirelessly to raise money for a cure. She’s done an amazing job!

Each year she has an online auction with proceeds going to diabetes research. The auction offers a host of things such as vacation packages, books, online classes… really, just about everything you could imagine. There is something for everyone.
This year, she raised a whopping $270,611! In five years of fundraising, she has raised $762,298. That figure just …read more

var iamInit = function() {try{initIamServingHandler(420,628,377770,”http://cdn.pis.picapp.com/IamProd/Resources/Css/css2.css”)}catch(ex){}}()

It seems that everywhere we turn, there is a new study linked to diabetes. Sometimes these studies are about research and the cure for diabetics. Sometimes it’s another study that is supposed to indicate whether a person will get diabetes or not.
For me, I always appreciate the studies that talk about research more than I do the ones that say, “If you do this, you’ll get diabetes.” This particular study, for example, talks about a baby’s birth weight in relation to getting diabetes later in life.
The study, which is published in the American …read more

var iamInit = function() {try{initIamServingHandler(420,594,370599,”http://cdn.pis.picapp.com/IamProd/Resources/Css/css2.css”)}catch(ex){}}()

This is exciting news: scientists at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston have initiated a phase 1 clinical trial to reverse type 1 diabetes.
Scientists have used a vaccine that provides protection against tuberculosis to cure a disease the “closely resembles” Type 1 diabetes in mice.
According to the research:
“In the animal studies, a commonly used vaccine that provides protection against tuberculosis, called Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG), was used effectively to deplete the abnormal immune cells that attack and destroy the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas.”
They are recruiting people for the human trials right now.

Amy at Diabetes Mine has a very powerful video she created on her site. Please go check it out for yourself. Diabetes Reloaded.
Do you think we have come a long way or still have so far to go? I wax and wane on this one…
Thank you Amy Tenderich for sharing.

Please join in and help make a difference. Go check out Amy at Diabetes Mine as she announces the 2nd Annual Diabetes Mine Design Challenge…
2nd Annual DiabetesMine™ Design Challenge
* a competition designed to foster innovation in diabetes design and encourage creative new tools that will improve life with diabetes *
Two of the most enticing design concepts will win a package of prizes to help further their creative efforts: $1,000 in cash, some pro-bono professional advice from world-renowned design experts, and free access to the next Health 2.0 conference for one adult winner.Submissions can be made beginning April 30, 2008, …read more