Diabetes Health Type 1: How Do You Feel About All Those “Cure” Articles?

I read a lot of diabetes articles. I can’t get enough of them. While surfing the diabetes websites, I come across lots of articles that mention cures that are in the works for diabetes, especially Type 1. While some articles are completely false and promising to cure us by some odd food or medication, there are many that revolve around research and actual medical breakthroughs. I think we learn which ones we have to ignore completely, and which are works in progress by medical personnel. In those articles, they always talk about the immune response to the cells and how they need to keep that from destroying the new cells for the cure to work. They mention the lifelong anti-rejection drugs that would be necessary. They mention the need to go back and have regular therapies or surgeries, etc. These articles always leave me with mixed feelings.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m extremely hopeful for a cure. I would do just about anything for a cure. But are these articles also just empty promises? Or is a cure really that far along in the works to where we might see it in our lifetime? I have had Type 1 diabetes for over 21 years, and just like many of you, I’ve been told a cure is only a few years away for most of my life.

There is a bright side to that, I suppose. I think it motivates you to take good care of yourself. After all, wouldn’t it be horrendous to get to a cure and be in rough shape with diabetes complications? I know I want to be around to see a cure happen. I have always said that they need to cure diabetes. I feel especially sad for children with diabetes. It is such a difficult disease and has to be just awful for parents trying to manage it in children.

It’s sweet that my friends like to forward things about cures to me. I think they must believe that they are going to come full circle and that diabetes will be a memory someday. I appreciate the thought, but sometimes I find these articles hard to read. They always seem to end with “if this medical breakthrough gets to human trials and applies for FDA approval…” which leaves me feeling like I’ve read another fictional article.

Another question I tend to ask is “Will the cure be attainable to all of us”? Will it be financially out of reach? Will the ongoing medications be affordable? With the excitement of a possible cure come so many questions and concerns.

Still, these research-based articles do give me hope. Hope is a powerful thing. It can keep us going. I know that many talented and bright individuals truly despise diabetes and want to end it. They know someone first-hand with the illness and have passion for fighting back against this chronic condition by tirelessly searching for that cure. I suppose we can only wait and see. I know I’ll be watching, reading, and hoping, to see what happens next.