Thank you for all! Yes, I don't want to give up when I read your words.
What encouraging news. Know someone who's been T1 for over 40 years. He was on gamma globulin for a serious infection. We all know what infection does to BG. During that time, he used a tiny fraction of his usual dose. He wrote researchers begging them to investigate a connection. Soon as gamma globulin treatment stopped, he was back to his usual insulin doses.
I've often wondered if the C-peptide in old animal insulins had protective or restorative properties & wish it was added to current insulin.
*I am not discouraged at all, Brigitte. Maybe I have residual beta cell functioning. I do not need a lot of insulin and have had to recently lower my basals I have had type one for 43 years and have only mild complications,
( feet and calf tingling). Kidneys and eyes are perfectly fine. No vascular nor cardiovascular issues at all. Since I go to Boston to donate blood for Dr. Faustman, do you think they would want to look at me for the Joslin study as well?
and Yes Gerri, I used the "old animal insulins" for over 25 years...
God bless,
Brunetta
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Brunetta,
You will have to wait 7 more years to get into the study I'm afraid. They use 50 years with it as a cut-off. You could check, of course, and If I were you, I stay on it. The study needs as many as it can get, but there are some requirements of course. The numbers they gave us last year were 3200 type 1's who are 50 year Medalists and have had it for over 50 years, 42 75 year Medalists, and 650 involved currently in the study (but that figure is probably higher now). I do have more statistics if you are interested. We were presented with a booklet that contains some of the stories from these Medalists that they chose to write a,nd pictures of our Celebration from June 3-4, 2011 at the Joslin Clinic in Boston. This was my first event that I went to, but will continue to go if they keep having them. NONE of us will benefit directly from being in the study, but the thought of someone else being helped by the information that they can gather is overwhelming, to say the least. I still hold out hope for a "cure" if you will allow me to use that word... (I think a fix is probably better)
Thanks, Yank. I would appreciate that info. I do believe that you and I will see a"cure" a "fix" in both of OUR lifetimes...
God bless,
Brunetta
Finally! The Roep study and this from Faustman lend a little credence to my lonely voice out here. As I keep saying, "The reports of the death of my pancreas were...wrong" From a 1.6 at diagnosis, my c-peptide is gradually increasing, now at 2.4 I don't know exactly which part or combination of my diet, supplement, and de-stress routine is doing it, but I'm a confirmed Type 1 LADA and against all predictions, my pancreas function is up, not down. http://russellstamets.blogspot.com
A mystery solved. Maybe. I've had T1 for over 50 years with no MAJOR consequences even though my control has been awful. When I asked a doctor about this, he said, "You will." When I asked an endo nurse, she said, "Some people are just like that."
But I think that if A1C is high, it doesn't matter whether you've got beta cells or not. I "should" have more complications than I do.
I've always thought that of myself, too. I've had diabetes for 34 years (you win by a long shot, Alice!) and have no signs of any complications despite BGs that have ranged from 35-350 that entire time. I've figured I had good genes (obvious glitches aside!) and just been grateful. I feel rotten for the folks I meet who have had diabetes only a few years and are on kidney meds.
I think lADA is often a different story than Type 1s diagnosed as kids, as it's not unusual for LADAs to honeymoon for literally years, especially if they have good control from the start.
It may solve a mystery for me, too. In my 30+ years as a T1, I’ve had (more than) my share of screwing up and having BGs in the 300s, but rarely in the low 400s, and never in my recollection have I been in the 500s (I was too young to know what my BG was at diagnosis). I always thought there was some little force at work that capped my highs in the 300s. This could be it.
Wow! So that explains how I was dx’d type 2 at 51, did pretty well with oral meds until 61, put on insulin and THEN dx’d T1. I’d actually wondered whether my endo was fudging it so that insurance would pay for the pump.
The evidence is that those type 1 diabetics who are relatively safe from complications have inherited a genetic condition in which their DNA is protected against the damaging effects of hyperglycemia. You have either inherited it or you have not, and no tinkering with the immune system or flogging half-dead beta cells into a miniscule increase in residual output is going to help.