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Diabetes and Adoption
Rachel and her husband chose to adopt a baby instead of meeting the challenges of handling a high risk pregnancy and Rachel’s type 1 diabetes at the same time. She shares their thought process and ultimate happy ending about the decision to bring a child into their lives.
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Chris Matthews Makes Time for Diabetes
Hosting Hardball on MSNBC and The Chris Matthews Show keep Chris Matthews working long hours. But Matthews got a lesson in priorities and made some life changes when he was diagnosed with type 2.
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A Chihuahua with Diabetes
Olivia and her dog both have diabetes and today they comfort and encourage each other through the rigors of dealing with the disease. Plus, find out what it means when your domestic pet is diagnosed with diabetes.
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Smoking and Diabetes
Smoking has severe effects on your diabetes and your health. Learn why diabetes and smoking are an especially bad combination and get some tips from the experts on how to quit.
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Continuous Glucose Monitors
CGM is a relatively new technology, but the information it provides is invaluable. Find out what CGM offers and whether it could help you.
The must-have resource for physicians, educators and medical professionals who focus on the treatment of diabetes.
Finally! A fresh take on the “professional” journal. Each bi-monthly issue cuts through the jargon and presents the most important information you need to enhance your practice and assist your patients.
Each bi-monthly issue of Diabetes Health Professional is a self-contained handbook covering products, educational resources and the latest diabetes research, complimented by balanced editorial focused on medical news, drug prescription information, clinical practice recommendations and changing treatment options.
Each quarter we send you the latest, most updated research guides, product guides and educational resource guides available for you and your patients.
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Latest Research Articles
“Our goal is to reverse established type 1 diabetes, not simply temporarily halt it or treat its symptoms,” says Dr. Faustman. “If we can introduce this inexpensive drug to the market, it will be a tremendous achievement.”
Dr. Denise Faustman Continues Working Toward the Cure
Editor’s Note: In May 2005, we published an in-depth article discussing the brouhaha that erupted when the New York Times wrote about the JRDF’s unwillingness to fund Dr. Faustman’s ongoing research. Two medical doctors in the diabetes community and scientific colleagues of Faustman at Harvard Medical School wrote an enraged response to the Times article. After investigating both sides of the story, the Times declined to print the two doctors’ letter. The JDRF decided to take matters into its own hands and circulated an e-mail containing the unpublished doctors’ letter to JDRF chapters around the country.
Merrill Goozner, director of the Integrity in Science Project for The Center for Science in the Public Interest was disturbed to see the JDRF go to such great lengths to discredit Faustman. “It is shocking to see that scientists, rather than evaluating something on its merits, would spend so much time attacking the messenger,” he said. “You have to wonder, what is their real motivation? You would think that scientists connected with the JDRF would be pursuing every effective cure, not attacking approaches that rival their own.”
Diabetes Health is pleased to see that the Iacocca Foundation supports Dr. Faustman’s research and that she has made the exciting leap to human trials.
After it saved the lives of diabetic mice, a drug used to treat tuberculosis and cancer is now being tested in humans at Massachusetts General Hospital as a possible cure for type 1 diabetes.
Denise Faustman, MD, PhD, director of the MGH Immunobiology Laboratory and associate professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, proved that the drug, Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG), cured mice with end-stage diabetes in 2001. She is now leading a Phase I clinical trial in patients that began in February and is expected to take 18 months to complete. BCG is a generic drug with an excellent safety profile in humans. It causes the body to make a natural substance called TNF, which helps regulate the immune system by killing the rogue T-cells that cause diabetes.
BCG has been used safely for nearly 80 years as a tuberculosis vaccine. It is being used in the human trial because it causes a low-grade inflammatory reaction, which in the mouse model of autoimmune diabetes led to the destruction of the abnormal autoimmune cells.
David M. Nathan, MD, director of the MGH Diabetes Center, commented on the study, "This is the very first step in what is likely to be a long process in achieving a cure. We first need to determine whether the abnormal autoimmune cells that underlie type 1 diabetes can be knocked out with BCG vaccination, as occurred in the mouse studies." Trial information is available to the public at www.faustmanlab.org.
Dr. Faustman’s research is unique because most diabetes research focuses on new treatments involving blood glucose monitoring devices. There is almost no emphasis on disease reversal or cure. “Our goal is to reverse established type 1 diabetes, not simply temporarily halt it or treat its symptoms,” says Dr. Faustman. “If we can introduce this inexpensive drug to the market, it will be a tremendous achievement.”
The clinical trial is being supported largely through direct and fundraising support from the Iacocca Foundation and through support from other donors and the Massachusetts General Hospital. The Iacocca Foundation was founded by Lee Iacocca and his family in 1984 to fund innovative approaches to a potential cure for diabetes.
The launch of the clinical trial received press coverage in the U.S. and the U.K. For more information on the MGH Immunobiology Laboratory, go to http://www.faustmanlab.org.
Categories: Research, Type 1 Issues
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