Yes, smart insulin would be “good enough” for me right now! I love the idea!
OK, yes, I would rather have my body produce insulin and all the other things that it no longer produces, but the smart insulin idea is great!
They had a pump in the eighties implanted in the chest. You used a large syringe to refill it. And ran a magnet over it to give a bolus. It had issues because of rejection, precision, and battery life. It had to be removed to change the battery. But generally it is the same idea. I think that was in England.
The biggest problem with the one you are talking about is there isn’t an insulin durable enough to last that long at body temp. Also batteries wouldn’t last more than a few months. And then there is the thing about closing the loop with software between CGMS and pump. I haven’t heard (not that, that means much) of anyone successfully closing the loop without at least some patient interaction. It will be huge news when they do.
Can you imagine the freedom of not testing, having insulin match BG without the educated guesswork! Wonder if the meter companies would allow this:) They’d lose many millions.
there were studies conducted where insulin producing cells were implanted in a membrane of some type. The membrane would not allow the relatively large white blood cells to enter the enclosure to attack these insulin producing cells. I seem to remember a follow-up not too long ago that said there was still insulin producing activity after several years in some trial participants. I’m not sure what stage the research is at now
I think that I would test regularly for months… because I would not believe it was real!
Heck, I would even promise to buy strips for life 
if that’s what it took…
I’d be testing also to be sure it was working! I often thought if there was a cure how I’d be freaking out for a long time after eating until I could believe I actually could eat like a normal person.
I’d buy strips for life, too. Just send me the bill.
So much money will be lost by supply & pump companies if smart insulin arrives. Just about everything we use would be obsolete. We’d all be bragging about having A1c’s in the fours. How much fun that would be!
Like comedian Chris Rock says, “ain’t no money in the cure! The money’s in the medicine. That’s how a drug dealer makes his money, on the comeback!”
Has any disease ever been cured? I can’t think of any. I mean a CURE (not a vaccine or treatment). I don’t believe there can be a cure, unless we take the PROFIT out of our health care industry.
But if that ever happens, I want a REAL cure, not just another product (i.e. artifical pancreas). I look to stem cells or Dr. Faustman’s research as promising. If I had limitless money, I would give to Dr. Faustman to complete her work.
So true! Sad & true. We’re the golden egg laying goose for the pharm/supply companies, not to mention all the others selling to diabetics. We’re a huge market that’s unfortunately growing.
The only cure – well, it is a promising treatment, really – that I know of, is Living Cell Technologies transplantation of piglet islets that are encapsulated so there would be no need for immunosuppressive therapy. BURT in Brazil has a promising cure for the newly diagnosed, if it doesn’t kill you first… Both these treatments are not yet available. We would have no choice but to try for the LCT, as DN has had Type 1 for four years.
wow! I wonder if we could figure out something to “jump start” the darned cells?
They have a whole bunch of studies where I am, but only for Newly Diagnosed T1D. It’s angering because I want to participate too! But, 11 years ain’t new in anyone’s book. haha.
I’m so ready for a cure. I can’t even imagine how frustrating it is for you Long-Termers.
Wait til its thirty then 11 seems pretty new.
I hope there’s a cure soon…and there will be one if we stop wasting money on wars and spend more on research.
Good luck in the trial, Brunetta. Keep us posted.
I agree that controling the auto-immune issue is key.
Although I would love any device or treatment that would make this easier it’s unfortunately not a cure. I would bet my money, and house, and cars, and everything I own on stem cells. Though it’s very true that the money is in the treatment not the cure, fortunately there are still some people out there who are willing to do the right thing for humanity, not their wallets.
Someone here said that they wouldn’t bet on stem cells because it depends so heavily on the administration (one president bans it, the next authorizes it). Again very true, but the US is not the only country in the world with intelligent people and rich financiers. While Bush banned all progress in this matter during his administration, many other countries were still going strong. Many American researchers were also relocating to those countries so they could work.
You are correct Pavlos that the rest of the world is making great strides in stem cell research while we have to wait for admin approval. But really what Bush and the other conservative thinkers in Washington banned was goverment funding of research. They did not ban the research. However this put an effective stop to US embryonic stem cell research. Most labs have, at least, partial goverment funding to keep the doors open. My understanding is that if the lab accepted any goverment money they could not use embryonic stem cells.
I was not trying to say that the US will be/or is the only country that will come up with a cure. Because of having my hopes shattered many times before I don’t put too much hope into a stem cell cure. If this becomes a cure it will certainly come from outside the US or as a direct result of collaboration between US and forgeign scientists.
Any US scientist that did not leave the country or have private funding is at least 8 years behind everyone else.
I am hoping that there will be enough good will to support a proper collaboration so that the US scientist will get caught up because any cure that comes from another country will have to pass through FDA regulations here first. Although this is true for a cure discovered here in the US also, it’s a more expedited process. For some reason the FDA seems to be highly distrusting of foreign medical advances. In other words while the rest of the world will be getting cured we will be waiting for the FDA.
I’m not knocking the FDA, they do us a valuable service by ensuring (or trying to) our medications and treatments are safe for us. I’m just saying that FDA approval for something developed in the US might be a few years, but if it’s foreign it will probably be double that.
Then again we have to consider who the president is during the time the FDA would be examining such a cure. Bush did more than cut funding and set such strict rules like you mentioned. He also censored scientific evidence in various fields to support his belief system. So if for example we get another Bush (or worse) and he/she believes that God meant for us to be diabetic (or any other condition that could be cured through stem cells) he/she might might prevent the FDA in a similar fashion.
Though now we are starting to go into entirely separate discussions. I guess what I am trying to say is that while the US scientists are 8 years behind I still hope the cure originates from the US. The other countries will jump on it much faster than vice a versa.
The FDA even under Clinton ignored or denied drugs approved and used in other countries. I don’t remember the specific drug but it had been used in Canada for years and could not get approval here. I am not a fan of the FDA. But like you said, they do an important service.
The scientists of the world are smart enough to see that approval happens faster with a US name on the FDA submission. I believe they will take this into consideration. Otherwise, I beleive there will be a lot of vacations to what ever country provides the cure.
Couldn’t agree more!
By the way, I wasn’t suggesting that it’s only republican presidents that interfere negatively with the FDA.
And I wasn’t trying to say that you were. Just trying to show this idea of a political FDA isn’t new. It is sad, but not new.
Sorry for the misunderstanding!
Don’t worry, no misunderstanding. I just wanted to clear that point up before someone jumped all over me for criticizing republicans and not democrats.