The American Diabetes Association meeting (ADA 2011) just finished, and as with every year there has been a lot of news. Normally, I only cover cure related research, but this is such important news (even if non-cure) that I'm going to give it a blog.
I know that many people are interested in Dr. Faustman's results. I have worked on a posting on those for eight evenings, and it is still not ready. I have not been able to get a copy of the poster they presented, and I'm spending more than the usual amount of time reviewing my posting. So I'm expecting it to go out approximately July 21. After that, I'm hoping for several more postings with news from ADA.
Increased Lifespan for People with Type-1 Diabetes
This is the single best news that I got from ADA 2011: the "lifespan gap" in the USA between people who have type-1 diabetes and people who don't is getting much smaller. When my daughter was diagnosed, we were told that, on average, people with type-1 diabetes had a lifespan 15 years shorter than other people. That information weighed heavily on my mind. And this paper shows that type-1 diabetics born between 1950 and 1964 did have a lifespan 18 years shorter than others born at that time. However, this study also shows that for type-1 diabetics born between 1965-1980, the gap has dropped to about 4 years. That is very strong progress.
It is important to remember that this study uses a lot of estimations (after all, most people they studied are still alive). However, they used standard techniques to do these estimations, and there is a large body of research on life expectancy, so I don't see any reason to doubt them. In particular, I think the same techniques were used for the 18 year gap as for the 4 year gap, so I'm totally comfortable with the trend: it is getting much better.
As an optimist, I'm hopeful that things are going to be even better from the 1980-1995 cohort, and continue to improve in the 1995-2010 cohort and onward. I think that with pumps, quarterly A1C measurements, and now CGMs, I think we can expect continued improvement.
Abstract: http://ww2.aievolution.com/ada1101/index.cfm?do=abs.viewAbs&abs=10077
News: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/health/2015472674_diab04.html
Joshua Levy
All the views expressed here are those of Joshua Levy, and nothing here is official JDRF or JDCA news, views, policies or opinions. My blog contains a more complete non-conflict of interest statement.
Blog: http://cureresearch4type1diabetes.blogspot.com
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3 comments:
Joshua our 5 year old daughter was diagosed in May and we were devastated. After reading about a shortened life span we were heartbroken. However I came across your recent posting about Longer Lifespans and it has really lifted my spirits and gave me some hope for the future. I wanted to thank you for putting this information up. My husband and I are praying for a cure and if not a cure then more advances in the treatment. Hopefully the 2025 deadline will be reached.
Many thanks for your postings they are appreciated.
Jackie
Greetings Joshua,
I don't know if it's just me but the
JDRF seems to be funding those associations that at a "Cure" will never be available it's only focused on Treatment (if that will ever be possible).
The only one that I have faith for a real cure is Dr. Denise Faustman's Research "The BCG Vaccine". Which does not involve Chemo, or anti rejection pills or using animal islets cells which will never pass FDA approval. Ironically JDRF is not providing any funding to Dr. Faustman's cause.Thankfully private investors are supporting her research including the Iaccoco Foundation. So my sincere thanks to them.
Lets be brutally honest. If a Pharmaceutical compamy like Roche, Eli Lilly or any other Pharmaceutical company is providing funding for a particular research into Type 1, it will never scratch the surface. Lets face it folks since 1921 we are still injecting ourselves with insulin. What is wrong with this picture???? Weather it be a needle or catheter it's the same crap to me.
I just wanted to point this out from a Type 1 Diabetic who has this for 22 miserable years and still counting.
I agree. Dr. Denise Faustman is the cure for diabetes greatest hope. My son was diagnosed a little over two weeks ago and she is the best research I have come across.
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