Several people have asked me for my thoughts on the recent Cell study that indicated a fasting-mimicking diet might stimulate beta cell regeneration.…
The First Lady Michelle Obama has become the face of the fight against childhood obesity, and her Let’s Move campaign recently backed several initiatives aimed at reducing rates of obesity in America. Chief among these is the proposal to reformat the FDA mandated Nutrition Labels to be more clear and in line with what people are actually eating.
I was particularly interested in the Enlite sensor, as I had used its predecessor, the Sof-sensor, for two years before switching to the Dexcom G4 sensor. For a long time, I complained at a high pitch about the Sof-sensor, and have found the Dexcom G4 to be worlds better.
We need to stop complaining about how many times mice have been cured of diabetes. That is part of science, and part of learning about each separate part of the complex puzzle that makes up diabetes. We should embrace the researchers who are interested in solving our problem.
The results of the AbATE clinical trial to slow the progression of type 1 diabetes have been trickling out at conferences and talks for a while now,…
Dr. Ferber wants to take a patient’s own liver cells, turn them into beta cells in the lab, and then put them back in the patient just like an islet cell transplant. Because the starting cells are the patient’s own cells, important protein markers on the cells would “match” what the patient’s immune system expects, and the cells would in theory not induce an immune reaction like an organ transplant would.
In anticipation of stable, liquid glucagon, one of the newest entrants into the insulin pump space, Tandem Diabetes Care has jumped ahead of the crowd and created a two-chamber infusion pump capable of holding and injecting both insulin and a secondary hormone, which they expect will be glucagon. This tandem Tandem pump is already being tested in Dr. Ed Damiano's clinical trial of a dual-hormone bionic pancreas.
Dr. Harrison and his team identified that some T cells express a molecule on their surfaces, CD52, that is capable of suppressing other T cells. Understanding the ways in which the immune system normally controls and suppresses T cells is crucial to our understanding what goes wrong in autoimmune diseases.
Dr. Doug Melton's group at Harvard, which has made many advances in our understanding of stem cell and beta cell biology over the years, has identified a new hormone, which they called betatrophin, that, when produced by the liver, induces beta cell growth in the islets of the pancreas.
I am able to wear the CGM places other than my abdomen, which I was terrified to even try with the Minimed. Thus far, I have worn the Dexcom on my lower back (worked all right, but sub-optimally; it was prone to getting knocked and jostled off) and my arm (works capitally). This ability to move the sensor around opens up my abdomen, which was getting bruised and scarred to the point of not being usable.