Diabetes and the future...

[fajrdrako]

This looked very interesting. At first I thought it was a huge ray of hope. But is it one of those rays of hope that leads nowhere? That looks promising, but changes nothing? Have I become cynical about medical breakthroughs?

Comments

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

It looks promising! It'll be interesting to see how it works on humans.

[dargie.livejournal.com]

I'd be thrilled to get in line to test it. I know that in spite of my weight, what triggered my diabetes was stress and chronic pain. Since I've been on anti-depressants the pain has been cut in half or better, and my blood glucose levels have been much better.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Les pain? That's terrific news! I am so glad.

I hate hearing that diseases are caused or exacerbated by stress. It's like saying "the bad things that happen to you make you sick and make you suffer twice as much", which I suppose should go under the general heading of "life is massively unfair".

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

It's possible. A cousin of mine, older than me but not at all overweight (if anything, on the thin side), was diagnosed at a time he was going through a marriage break-up.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

There you have it. If you're happy, you get to be healthy as well. It's a massive biophysical catch-22.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Yup. Essentially, low spirits screw over your immune system, & c.

[dargie.livejournal.com]

A whole lot less. You know that commercial (or maybe you don't get them in Canada) for Cymbalta where it talks about how depression can cause physical pain as well as emotional? Well that was me. Everything hurt all the time. Legs, knees, hips, back, hands, head... you name it, it hurt. I thought much of it was arthritis. But now, things are much better. There is some arthritis but not nearly as much as I originally thought.

I know what you mean by being upset by the fact that stress an make you sick/sicker, but at the same time, once we find ways to alleviate the stress, the physical symptoms stop or at least slow down. And to my mind that's a whole lot better than treating them with lots of pain meds or drugs we don't really need.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Nice Hiro icon!

Yes, it is good the way stress-related illness can be alleviated when the stress becomes less. And then whatever ancillary physical problems remain can be dealt with in their own right.

Not needing drugs is certainly a good thing.

[jhayman.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately the research was on Type 1 (or juvenile) diabetes, not Type 2, which start in adulthood/middle age.

[dargie.livejournal.com]

According to what I read, they followed up with type 2 and found that it reduced the insulin resistance.

[beck-liz.livejournal.com]

Oh, man. I'm scared to hope. But it seems like there might be something there.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't it be wonderful if it worked? with humans? in our lifetimes?

[sraun]

I've asked 17catherines to take a look - it's not exactly her field of expertise, but it is her boss' field.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Oh, good thinking! Thank you! I look forward to her comments.

[sraun]

Here's what she has to say so far - http://sraun.livejournal.com/299702.html

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Interesting! Thanks for asking her.

[wijsgeer.livejournal.com]

let's just hope it is the promise it seems to be. But than again, having no specific knowledge in this field I feel I just once in a while read a newspaper article claiming a breaktrough. This leads me to the suspicion that part of it is the liking of newspapers of proclaiming breaktroughs.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

As bystanders, it's hard to tell how much really is scientific breakthrough, how much is unsubstantiated experimentation, and how much is journalistic hyperbole. So we wait and see.

On the other hand, given all the work that has been done on diabetes, it wouldn't really be surprising if they really did find a breakthrough.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

I think it's very likely, as I've read that work has been going on on it in several directions recently - all very promisingly. I tend to take note of it as I lost a friend to it last year (diabetes-related kidney failure).

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I have many friends with diabetes - I'd love to think this will help them.

[duncanmac.livejournal.com]

It's a very interesting approach.

Unfortunately, humans apparently have several bio-systems that work differently from those that mice have. As 17catherines said, we don't know if this will lead to anything. All we can do is hope -- and rebuke the government if it cuts funding for research such as this just because its progress was slow.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Funding - yes, crucially important.