Why is diabetes an imperfect science? The last 22 years of my life with diabetes have disproved as much (or more) than it has confirmed in conventional diabetes wisdom. The facts were in the studies - but researchers didn't know what to do with them, at the time. Here's where the mysteries will unfold..

The last year blogging with The Diabetes Blog has been an in your face demonstration of the imperfect science of diabetes. Many undisclosed details of studies from days gone by have proven to be a reason why diabetes has been an imperfect science. Since when has science been imperfect? When you don't complete your homework. Don't get wrong - science has done the homework, but you - the diabetic - have not been privy to every fact found in these studies. Nowadays, there's no excuse. The dog doesn't eat my homework.

It's time these facts made it to the light of day. I am taking my investigative curiosity and hanging a shingle over LoveDiabetes.com - because that's who I am: Allison Love Beatty! Let's buddy-up with the researchers and their homework. It's about time we solved the universal mysteries of diabetes. The facts are available. With combined knowledge, existential and pathological, we can make more of these studies from yesteryear and the days to come.

Someday soon we will see the trend of diabetes reverse - less diagnosis, less complications, and reduced costs. I've got Internet access, unlimited long-distance, and plenty of time. The fun is just getting started! This is my invitation to you - what's your diabetes mystery? Leave me a comment on LoveDiabetes.com so I know what's on your mind. Together we will prove there is no such a thing as an imperfect science.

Love always,
Allie B

A type 1 diabetic mystery is why do some Type 1s get complications and others seem to never get them? A massive Japanese study of Type 1 diabetics found that those with fulminant diabetes developed complications much faster and more severely than those with non-fulminant diabetes.

The difference between fulminant and non-fulminant is the speed and intensity at which the disease develops. Fulminant Type 1 diabetes typically develops suddenly with near total loss of beta cell function. This type of diabetes is confirmed with testing c-peptide levels. Non-fulminant type 1 diabetes has residual c-peptide levels that eventually taper to undetectable. Sometimes this is seen through many years of the Honeymoon Period.

This study may be the antithesis of conventional wisdom for preventing complications. Staking all hopes on blood sugar control is heavily optimistic. Yes controlling blood sugar does lessen the workload for existing beta cells, and thus extends the lifespan of each beta cell. Research suggests that c-peptide offers protection to beta cells, both from apoptosis (cell death) and encourages new cell growth. This new cell growth applies to beta cells and other cells of the body that endure long-term Type 1 diabetes complications.

Diabetics are instructed that maintaining normal blood sugars is the Holy Grail of preventing long-term complications. Yes and no. The truth is controlling your blood sugar will not allow complications of Type 1 diabetes to develop as quickly, presuming you still had some level of beta cell function upon diagnosis (i.e., c-peptide). That doesn't sound like a reward as much as it does a delayed punishment. I'd like c-peptide with my insulin, please. It's off the à la carte menu? That's fine - serve it up! I want to thank Klausen for bringing this study to my attention.

Insulin not only moves glucose into the cells, but it also escorts Vitamin C. Blood sugar hogs the seats on the bus in most diabetics, therefore reducing the amount of Vitamin C we can absorb. This is the premise of The GAA Theory: high glucose levels hinder vitamin C entry into cells.

Vitamin C is vitally important for many functions throughout the body - a big one being metabolism. Glucose and Vitamin C are similar in the way they enter the cells. Both molecules require help from insulin. The name for the process that brings glucose and Vitamin C through cell membranes is insulin-mediated uptake. The insulin-mediated uptake of glucose and vitamin C uses white blood cells. White blood cells have more insulin pumps and they may contain 20 times the amount of vitamin C as ordinary cells.

So does increasing your Vitamin C help boost your glycemic control? Diabetes Health cited a study that confirms daily doses of 2,000 mg of absorbic acid improved both fasting blood glucose and HbA1c readings in patients with type 2 diabetes. Next time you swing by the store - see if some Emergen-C can help you achieve better glycemic control. With 1,000 mg of Vitamin C per packet - their homepage says: Feel The Good. Little did they know how good it could be for Type 2 diabetics!

Thomas Smith began reviewing scientific literature after conventional medicine failed him in controlling diabetes. Smith found research that shows dietary toxins impair cell membrane function. These toxins include trans fatty acids and refined sugars. Cells begin to have trouble absorbing nutrients, and the blood sugar rises. Over time, this results in chronic elevated blood and urine sugar levels. Sounds like a growing epidemic, doesn't it?

This damage to cell membranes, caused by a poor diet, can be repaired. The diabetic syndrome can be cured by eliminating all processed fats and oils. The protocol calls for supplementing high-dose Omega-3 fatty acids. This protocol normalizes blood sugars because the body is continuously repairing cell membranes by using the fats and oils available in the diet. One caution: the speed of recovery is related to the length of the illness. Some Type 2 diabetics may require up to one year for dramatic reductions in blood sugar.

A gaping hole exists between conventional medicine and diet. Conventional medicine claims that the cause of Type 2 diabetes is unknown. Medical doctors, as practitioners of conventional medicine, are not trained to explain how it happened. They treat symptoms with medicine. The business of medicine is medicine. The business of diabetes would be devasted if the cure was as simple as diet. The explanation Thomas Smith provides in his empirical studies is fascinating and I encourage anybody with competing or supporting evidence to open the debate.

UCLA researchers report Nevada County, California residents have the lowest rate of diabetes in the state -- 2.6 percent. That's about one-third the state-wide average (6.8 percent), and slightly less than one-quarter the prevalence of diabetes in Imperial County (11.2 percent).

Take a few guesses why Nevada County's rate of diabetes is so much lower than Imperial County, and well under the national average of 7 percent. Do families eat less processed food around the dinner table? More jogging trails? Better health insurance coverage? Researcher Theresa Hastert states, "There is no one thing, but higher income is associated with better foods and exercise."

Hastert explained Nevada County is mostly white, affluent, educated and insured. Imperial County has a large population of Latinos and migrant farm workers. Nevada County's numbers support general findings that minorities without affordable, continuous health care are more prone to the disease. Who's got time for the dinner table -- Hastert openly speculates eating more junk food may be a consequence of dodging between three jobs just to get by. Also, Nevada County is a beautiful area -- she wonders if environmental factors play a role.

Is diabetes a socio-economic disease? If so, we're in trouble. The gap is widening between our nation's haves and have nots, and large concentrations of poor minorities may explain the disproportionate rates of diabetes from county to county. Read more in The Union.

Diabetic foot complications are responsible for many lower extremity amputations. But this last drastic step can be prevented up to 85 percent of the time with early diagnosis and proper care.

Now Thai researchers and physicians have shown using a patient's own stem cells can effectively heal chronic foot wounds. Diabetes patients with chronic foot wounds, aged 50-72, were injected with stem cells obtained from their own blood. Most excitedly, the wounds healed nicely within three to four months. The stem cell treatment also makes fiscal sense. According to this article, stem cell treatment for wounds in a patient with diabetes costs about $6,000, one-fifth the cost of conventional treatment for a leg wound.

Studies have shown primary care physicians often fail to examine the feet of patients with diabetes. It's a shame, as this step is the least costly and most effective way to prevent foot wounds and potential amputations. But at the same time, it is nice to know there is a promising, cheaper treatment utilizing patient-donated stem cells.

In the fall of 1985, a very scary thing happened shortly after I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. One morning I woke up and I couldn't remember things I would normally remember. I couldn't remember the name of my neighbor's dog. I had a fanatical love for Cookie. Of course I would remember Cookie! A diabetic child would never forget such a sweet name for such an adorable dog! One more thing -- I had a pounding headache.

My mom brought me to the hospital, where my endocrinologist met us. They ran test after test and nary could an expert explain my memory loss. They confirmed I was experiencing amnesia, which turned out to be temporary because I was back to normal the next day.

How many people have experienced this same phenomenon? I surmised that this was my body reacting to the Humulin insulin I had started only a month or so before. The insulin must have been competing with my body's own attempts to generate insulin thus thwarting my blood sugar down into a dangerous hypoglycemic state. A study published in 1991 shows that hypoglycemia results in a lesion in the left temporal lobe. I have one of those lesions now, but it wasn't discovered until 2000. Oh yeah - and my peduncle is perfectly asymmetric. What does that mean anyway?

Why weren't doctors informed of this potential reaction to insulin in 1985? A study 6 years later is a few years too late. And how many more newly diagnosed insulin-dependent diabetics experience the same thing? My parents were scared out of their mind and nobody (including specialists) had any idea what to do with me.

Nutrigenetics is the study of the interaction of genes and diet. The Diet Channel has published an article explaining what nutrigenetics is and how it will revolutionize the world of diabetes.

Researchers believe elevated blood sugar can be mapped back to a genetic reaction. Drugs are only overriding the cause of elevated blood sugar and forcing the sugar into the cells, causing damage over time. Nutrigenetics is addressing the cause of the elevated blood sugar and may suggest a better diet to control your diabetes. Genes control how you metabolize certain vitamins, minerals, and nutrients. These genes can vary from one individual to the next. See what happens to Buddy the Elf when he consumes way too much coffee? Yes, I know - that's Hollywood. Nevertheless - a comical example of what nutrigenetics explores.

Consumer-friendly tests are available for these gene and diet interactions. The tests are done with a cheek swab. You send your swab off to a specialized lab, which analyzes DNA from the cheek cells. You receive a report identifying your gene variations. A qualified health professional can explain the test results, and make specific diet and supplement recommendations to optimize your health. If this is a test you're interested in taking, Sciona's Mycellf Program will be happy to prepare your profile. Open up and say Ahhhh.

A study reported in the journal Nutrition found obese, diabetic mice whose diet was supplemented with an extract of cacao liquor demonstrated a significant reduction in blood sugar.

Scientists examined if cacao beans might be helpful in preventing Type 2 diabetes. They supplemented the diets of obese, diabetic mice with cacao liquor for 3 weeks. The specific type of cacao liquor, called cacao liquor proanthocyanidins (CLPr), contains 72% polyphenols. They found that blood sugar was reduced in direct correlation with the dosage of CLPr.

This study was funded by confectionary giant Mars, Inc. In case Mars doesn't ring a bell - maybe some of their products might: Snicksers, 3 Musketeers, Milky Way, and M & M's to name a few. With the results of this research, and the deep pockets behind it -- maybe Mars is contemplating coming out with a diabetes-reversing candy bar? I suggest they call it The Sweet Escape (start the music!)

We could all benefit from added fiber in our diets. However, it seems the type of fiber consumed is important too. A new study concludes that vegetable fiber is a good defence against type 2 diabetes. The study comes courtesy of researchers at the University of Sydney, Australia, who found that adults eating five grams of vegetable fiber daily were 24 percent less likely than other adults to develop the disease. People over the age of seventy enjoyed a thirty-one percent risk reduction.

The study tracked the eating habits of more than two thousand people over a ten year period. Wow. The researchers also reported that those whose diets contained fiber from mainly cereal or fruit sources did not fare so well - they had a higher risk for type 2 diabetes than those getting lots of fiber from veggie sources. The reason could be that foods high in vegetable fiber produce smaller fluctuations in blood glucose and insulin levels than would cereal or fruits. Lead researcher, Alan Barclay, says legumes are the best fiber source of all.

The results have been published in the latest Diabetes Care.

Yesterday I posted on the latest indicator that high fructose corn syrup is harmful and maybe even linked to diabetes risk. Naturally, the American Beverage Association vigorously rejects the report.

In the interest of balance, here's the opposing argument courtesy of the ABA's website. "There is absolutely no unique link between soft drinks sweetened with high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and diabetes, in children or adults. In fact, it is a stretch of the imagination to link the laboratory findings of this unpublished in vitro study with the occurrence of diabetes in humans." Ooh, "unpublished." Ouch. Nice veiled barb, there.

The statement goes on in some detail, basically saying if the harmful reactive carbonyls occur naturally in a number of foods, why single out HFCS?

Well, you can't blame them for defending themselves. But I laughed at the following: "Singling out any one food, beverage or ingredient as a unique cause or contributor to diabetes is simply not supported by science." I dunno. A study led by a professor of food science at Rutgers. Sure sounds like science to me...

Aaaahh ... fall will soon deliver golden trees, crisp autumn air, piles of fallen leaves begging to be jumped in, and the stick of the flu vaccine.

The National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID) recently issued a report calling for greater influenza vaccination rates among Americans with diabetes. Turns out more than 50 percent of the 21 million people with diabetes do not receive an annual influenza vaccination. This is contrary to the recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control and the American Diabetes Association.

According to Dr. William Schaffner, NFID's vice president, the impaired immune systems of people with diabetes can result in a higher risk of serious complications from influenza, including impaired blood sugar control. Annually, this infectious disease strikes up to 60 million Americans and kills an average of 36,000 people -- more than all other vaccine-preventable diseases combined. Over 10 percent of deaths linked to influenza and pneumonia are due to diabetes. There are studies citing the benefits of the vaccine for people with diabetes, including reduced hospitalization and death by 72 percent for those with diabetes 18 to 64 years of age, and 80 percent less hospital admissions for children and adults with diabetes.

I'm just speculating, but lack of awareness, lack of access to an affordable vaccine or just plain philosophical disagreement with the need for the vaccine (among other factors) may all play a role in the low influenza vaccination rates for people with diabetes. Just an example, my parents both have type 1, and my mom will stand in line for hours to get a shot (she was hospitalized for influenza in her pre-diabetes days), while my dad always refuses -- he's never had influenza. Read more at Infection Control Today.

In two weeks, Bernard Farrell will be riding in the Bike the Miles annual fundraiser to support Dr. Faustman's research to cure Type 1 diabetes. His participation is especially intrinsic because it is one day away from his 35th anniversary of becoming a Type 1 diabetic.

Bernard plans to raise $10,000 for Dr. Faustman's research. Last year he raised $7,500. The entire event raised a whopping $301,000! All of this funding is going toward the human trials to cure Type 1 diabetes. After discovering that the insulin-producing islet cells of the pancreas are capable of regeneration, Dr. Faustman now needs to test her treatment, already known to be safe in humans, to see if the effects are as positive as they were in the animal model.

It goes without say that this is terribly important for Bernard as much as it is for every man, woman and child touched by Type 1 diabetes. Bike the Miles is an annual event that was started by Susan Root and Jacqueline Fusco in 2004. Both, Susan and Jacqueline, have children who are Type 1 diabetics. Please visit Bernard's site to support his ride and the drive to cure Type 1 diabetes!

Back in 2000, researchers at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada transplanted islet cells in the livers of people with type 1, known as the Edmonton Protocol. Each islet transplant required several cadaver donors. The transplants worked for awhile, but approximately 80 percent of patients required insulin after a couple years. It was assumed the transplanted cells were rejected, but new research points to a new possible culprit -- fat.

Dr. Roger Unger and colleagues of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas performed the Edmonton Protocol in rats with type 1. Fat built up around the transplanted cells in only a month. The cells stopped producing insulin and the rats died after 15 weeks. Dr. Unger explained the liver creates fatty acids from food, and islet transplants in the liver are surrounded by too much fat. He proved his point by repeating the transplant in a separate group of type 1 rats, but this time the rats were on a strict diet. A third group of rats received leptin, a hormone involved in increasing metabolism and decreasing appetite. These rats had an improved response, although the Reuters story does not provide specifics. Here's the study abstract in Diabetes, but ya gotta pay for the full text article.

Bummer. You get an islet cell transplant, but still have to stay away from the Ben & Jerry's. A next step could be testing this theory in human islet cell transplants via a low-calorie, low-sugar diet following transplantation. Read more in Reuters.

New research finds tuberculosis (TB) is more difficult to treat if the patient has type 2 diabetes. The study examined 737 Indonesians with tuberculosis screened for type 2. Nearly 15 percent had type 2, and initially, their TB was as severe as the non-diabetics. After two months of treatment, TB sputum tests were positive 18.1 percent for those with type 2 and only 10 percent in non-diabetics. At the six month mark, 22.2 percent of type 2s had positive sputum results compared to 9.5 percent of the non-diabetics.

The story in Reuters does not address why people with TB and type 2 diabetes do not respond as well to TB treatment. Tuberculosis is a serious infectious disease. Over one-third of the world carries the TB bacterium, and one in ten latent infections will progress to active TB disease. Untreated, active TB is a real threat, it kills more than half of its victims. Experts are examining how rising rates of type 2 are impacting TB control and prevention worldwide.

I just finished reading an excellent book about Dr. Paul Farmer's inspirational work treating tuberculosis in impoverished communities worldwide -- Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World -- masterfully written by Tracy Kidder. I wonder what Dr. Farmer has to say about people with type 2 and TB.