Archive for the ‘Scott's Opinion’ Category

Question: I was wondering if you can explain your project in layman’s terms. I don’t understand what islets are; I do get that the sheets will hold something to help with blood sugars, but will that be human- or pig-based? What type of freedom will diabetics have? Will they be able to eat whatever they want, or not worry about lows? Will there be side effects? What makes your ideas better than other companies experimenting with islets? How will it work? What about the hormone Amylin: will that be present? Sorry for the stupid questions.

One of the pleasures of writing for solvingdiabetes.org is I get feedback on the thoughts of a group of interested diabetics in the world.  It lets me know what is less than clear on our web sites.  I recently received the following questions from MK.

Newsweek Magazine states on its cover: “Desperately Seeking Cures: Medical research isn’t making progress rapidly enough.” Their key observation is that the academic medical research world is structured with incentives that perversely favor glamourous discoveries, not cures. The article does not cover diabetes research. I decided that today I would apply it to my area of interest, juvenile diabetes. So this is today’s question: Why is there no cure for type 1 diabetes?

Recently Elizabeth Snouffer published an interview with me at Diabetes24-7. During the discussion after, Elizabeth noted that a number of people liked the Smart Insulin approach, and she asked me to talk about how it compared with the Islet Sheet. Today I feel I was not completely fair to Smart Insulin and wanted to write a bit more.
The idea is attractive: formulate insulin so that the rate of insulin release increases as glucose goes up.
Insulin stores islets in the form of crystals, which contain both the protein insulin and the ion zinc (yes, the same zinc found in mineral supplements that is …..

Medicine learned of type 1 diabetes early with the observation of people who seemed to eat food and make honey out of it (diabetes mellitus means “honey passing through”). It was induced in animals for the first time in 1889 when Oskar Minkowski surgically removed the pancreas of a dog. Thus did the dance of knowledge of diabetes in humans and animals begin.

We think famous people are different from us because they are celebrities and we are not. On the web you can easily find long lists of celebrities, living and dead, who suffered from type 1 diabetes. Nick Jonas (Jonas Brothers) is famous for this. Interviews with diabetics are becoming a staple of Olympic coverage. When I was diagnosed my mind went to Mary Tyler Moore, the rare celebrity (at the time) who was open about diabetes and taking insulin as part of her life.

While we wait for the functional cure we have management with injected insulin. I have been managing my own type 1 diabetes for over thirtyyears through many changes in the tools available. I have developed a few rules. So here, especially for my T1D readers, are tips on the things that get me through.

Was that a breakthrough? How do we know for sure?

“Medical Breakthrough” gets 1.9 million Google hits. We crave breakthroughs; they are the food of press coverage. The urge to call every step in the right direction a breakthrough is strong, if only because it increases excitement – and the prospect of raising badly needed funds.

The end of a year and the marker of a decade are a time to reflect. None of the insulin’s I inject was on the market ten years ago. I combine Lantus in the morning and Levemir at night to get basal insulin pretty close to what my islets would have given me. I can inject Novolog when I eat (rather than earlier when my meal insulin was Regular), lowering social anxiety (“Excuse me, can you tell me when exactly we will eat? I have a metabolic disease.”) Best of all I can measure my blood sugar as often as I want, and quickly adjust insulin as needed. In short, I have the tools I need to manage my diabetes and lead a pretty healthy life.

Experts agree that islet encapsulation is a promising concept for making the benefits of islet transplantation available to people suffering from diabetes without the use of immunosuppressant drugs. The capsules come in two types. A capsule containing a single islet is called a microcapsule; one that contains many islets is a macrocapsule. The macrocapsule is safer,