I'm having a blonde moment. The headline reads: cases of undiagnosed diabetes drop sharply. As if this is good news. The article continues - the number of men in the United States with undiagnosed diabetes has declined sharply over the past 25 years. Like I said, I'm blonde. Maybe somebody can help me correlate this to good news for us diabetics.

I have a larger than life question mark looming over my head. A recent news story alluded to the fact that the death toll for women over the last 30 years shows little to no improvement over diabetic men. I think I get it now. The net continues to harvest whole, healthy bodies. Shrimp caught in nets are complete animals. Only once they are dumped onto the boat (let's call the boat "diabetes") are their heads removed (i.e., no turning back to the sea now) Good old Charleston summers! Well diabetics are not shrimps, but as the holes in the net get smaller -- more shrimp are being caught.

So what's does this look like? The number of diabetes diagnosis is on the rise. The long-term complications are on the rise. The cost of treatment (you guessed it) is on the rise. U.S. sales of diabetes drugs reached $9.8 billion in 2005. Sadly, all this money isn't yielding better outcomes for the growing diabetes patient population. So where's the success in this story? Well, if you're in the business of diabetes - it's a jackpot. You didn't let too many get away.

ImmunoMod has received an FDA Orphan Drug Grant award to pursue human trials focused on preventing the onset of Type 1 Diabetes by protecting beta cell function in early-stage diabetic youth.

When diabetes is first diagnosed, a short window of time known as "the honeymoon stage" exists to preserve the body's ability to create insulin. During this critical stage an individual has the best chance to protect the beta cells and stop the onset of the disease. Studies have shown that regeneration of damaged cells can occur if beta cells can be preserved. The problem to date has been the inability to prolong the preservation of these beta cells.

While some treatments have decelerated beta cell destruction, their effects have been temporary, caused toxic effects and required continuous treatment. ImmunoMod appears to effectively and safely protect beta cells for prolonged periods of time. The goal is to retard or reverse the destruction of these cells during the honeymoon phase, when cells first begin to lose function, which typically lasts about six months. I wonder if it's possible to reintroduce the honeymoon stage for Type 1 diabetics who have already been diabetic for decades?