|
|
Could a pill a day keep diabetes away?
Researchers look for the answer
September 10, 1996
Web posted at: 9:45 p.m. EDTFrom Correspondent Jeff Levine
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- For every parent with diabetes, there is a child who may be at risk for developing the disease, a fact that Jane Turek knows only too well. She herself has Type I diabetes. When blood tests revealed that her seven-year-old son Ben is also at risk for the disease, she was devastated.
"Naturally, you feel guilty. I mean, I have diabetes, so I tend to blame myself, even though I know, logically and rationally, it's not just me," Turek, a diabetes educator, said.
Her illness requires her to take insulin injections and watch her health closely for complications. Her son Ben, whose blood test showed antibodies that could destroy insulin-producing cells, is participating in a National Institutes of Health study that might mean he never has to.
It's estimated that every year in the United States, some 13,000 children and teen-agers will be diagnosed with Type I diabetes, once known as juvenile diabetes because most of the people who develop it are young.
Type I diabetics don't produce insulin, which the body needs to digest foods properly. Patients need insulin injections to survive, and risk complications that can lead to blindness, heart disease, and kidney failure.
The idea behind the NIH study is to see if the disease can be prevented by giving insulin to those at risk.
"I don't think that's too much to hope. I think this is the first step that moves us in that direction," said Dr. Jay Skyler of the University of Miami, one of the institutions participating in the nationwide, five-year study.
Altogether, 10 medical centers across the country will follow 830 children and adults whose blood contains antibodies for Type I diabetes. Those with a greater than 50 percent risk get insulin shots; individuals with a 25 to 50 percent chance will get an insulin capsule.
"Even if we delay the disease by a number of years, you delay the impact of accumulating glucose load, creating the complications," Skyler said.
The question is, can an insulin capsule a day stave off the ravages of diabetes? "We don't know for sure if that's true, but you're so hopeful, you just assume that that's the answer," diabetes patient Turek says.
The U.S. government says if the study proves out the theory, then the $30 million spent on the study is a bargain.
Related sites:
Note: Pages will open in a new browser windowExternal sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.
Tell us what you think!
You said it...
© 1996 Cable News Network, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.