{"id":3296,"date":"2009-12-07T12:39:32","date_gmt":"2009-12-07T17:39:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=3296"},"modified":"2015-12-27T15:44:32","modified_gmt":"2015-12-27T20:44:32","slug":"how-to-know-when-diabetes-is-taking-over-your-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=3296","title":{"rendered":"How To Know When Diabetes Is Taking Over Your Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

The strange thing about writing about diabetes is that you put yourself at risk of really letting it take over your life. Things can get sort of meta — you’re living with diabetes, but then you’re also writing about living with it. (And in many cases you’re writing about how you don’t think it should take over your life.) Well, I just discovered a third level — a meta-meta-level, if you will: dreaming<\/em> about diabetes.<\/p>\n

Yup. Last night I woke up in the middle of the night from a very vivid dream in which my husband’s cousin had diabetes (unclear which kind) and was insisting to me that he had discovered the perfect food for diabetics: French fries.<\/p>\n

“They’re great,” he said. \u00a0“I eat them, and after a half hour, my blood sugar is totally fine!”<\/p>\n

I think it’s important to note here that there were other weird things going on in the dream. Like, for example, this conversation was taking place at a trapeze class. But my sleeping mind made a quick assessment of what was truly absurd about the situation, and quickly settled on the French fries.<\/p>\n

“You know, that’s actually not true,” I said, as a circus performer sailed overhead. “What’s probably happening is that the fat in the fries is causing them to have a delayed effect on your blood sugar. You really should test again two, maybe three hours after you eat them and see what happens.”<\/p>\n

Yes, my friends. I am explaining the glycemic index while I sleep.<\/p>\n

The guy insisted that his fry theory was correct, and in proof, held out his glucometer to test his glucose. Except, in another weird twist, it was actually a continuous <\/em>monitor (could things get any weirder?!?!?<\/em>) and the screen said 283. I stood there in shock — 283? And this man is telling me his french fries have no effect? THIS IS CRAZY!!!<\/p>\n

The scene then cut to me actually on<\/em> the trapeze, culminated in a routine skin exam at my dermatologist’s office, and then I woke up to an actual message from my doctor saying they had H1N1 vaccine in stock. It was a medical whirlwind, and it all happened between the hours of 4 and 7 am.<\/p>\n

So am I alone? Has anyone else had diabetes creep into their dreams?<\/p>\n

In more relevant — or at least scientific — news, I just read an update on the results of a recent study<\/a> with Rituximab, which is a drug originally approved for cancer that’s being experimented with for Type 1 diabetes. A quick breakdown of the science: researchers have long thought (correctly, it seems) that a type of immune cell called T cells are involved in the onset of Type 1. (T stands for thymus, the organ where they develop, and the T cells are thought to be the ones that actually kill the insulin-producing cells.) But recent hypotheses suggest that a different kind of immune cell called B cells might also be involved in Type 1’s development — perhaps by somehow triggering the T cells to attack.<\/p>\n

Rituximab destroys B cells. So the hope was that it might help stop the progression of diabetes in newly diagnosed patients — rituximab would destroy the B cells, the thinking went, and thus the T cells would never be triggered.<\/p>\n

This study, which took place at UT Southwestern and 14 other centers worldwide and was supported by JDRF, found that rituximab did indeed appear to slow the progression of Type 1 in study participants a year out from the trial start date. That’s great — but there are several caveats. First, it’s not a cure. And second, since rituximab actually destroys<\/em> B cells, \u00a0researchers question what’s going to happen further out, once the B cells have a chance to recover. Will the new B cells just pick up where the old ones left off?<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, I find all these new immune-modulating drugs exciting (full disclosure: I was in a clinical trial for an anti-CD3 monoclonal antibody — a drug that affects T cells). My hope is that when all the parts come together — stem-cell-derived insulin-producing cells, immune-modulating drugs to shut off the immune attack — we might actually, some day, end up with a cure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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