Did you know type 1 diabetes can take months or even years to develop? It makes perfect sense considering my entire family developed type 1 diabetes at varying points in the life cycle -- teen, young adult and middle-age.

Research has shown the pancreas is stubborn and strong, requiring the loss of over half of the beta cells before symptoms of type 1 kick in. Researchers are taking the next logical step and enrolling relatives of type 1 diabetics in various studies to try and delay or even prevent the onset of the disease.

The University of Florida Health Science Center and Shands at UF are one of 14 centers nationwide dedicated to Type 1 Diabetes TrialNet, a research group dedicated to a host of prevention and early treatment studies.

Now here is a study I feel like enrolling in. TrialNet is testing whether a one-a-day oral insulin capsule can prevent or delay onset of type 1 in high-risk individuals. An earlier trial suggested oral insulin might delay type 1 diabetes up to 4 years in a portion of participants with islet cell autoantibodies in their blood. Makes me wonder if I have any autoantibodies swirling around in my blood.

NBC6 South Florida is profiling an eighteen-year-old, Kimberly Parker, who is taking part in study to test the effectiveness of using a cancer drug to control diabetes. The study is being funded by the National Institutes of Health, but the research is being carried out in three places around the country, with the number of sites to increase in the future. One of those places is the University of Miami. The study involves giving a drug approved for treating lymphoma, Rituximab, to diabetics in the hope it will target and disable the immune system cells that allow diabetes to develop.

Kimberly, who was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes only three months ago, is philosophical about her condition and is optimistic that being involved in the study is better than doing nothing. "I'm excited to do this and to help others and to help myself, hopefully, and to see what happens," she says.

I'm always cautiously optimistic when I hear about new diabetes treatment advances. This would fall in that category, although it is potentially interesting news: Researchers are studying how immunosuppressive drugs may stop the progress of Type 1 diabetes. Apparently, initial results are so positive that some scientists are saying this could be the biggest diabetes treatment advance since insulin was introduced. This actually isn't the first time these drugs have been studied for possible diabetes treatment. An older generation of immunosuppressant drugs was considered but proved to be too toxic for Type 1 patients to use long term. But today's less-harmful immunosuppressant drugs -- including MMF/DZB (for organ-transplant patients), anti-CD3 (immune system blocker), and Rituximab (antibody) -- has prompted a new round of trials. In my estimation, news like this is always bittersweet: The researchers hope that giving these treatments very early might actually prevent people at risk for Type 1 diabetes from ever actually having it...but I'm sure that hope is years away.