A World Perspective on Type 1 Diabetes

As diabetes is an increasing problem, not only in the UK but also in the rest of the world, there is going to be an interesting radio series on BBC World Service on 15th June. The first episode Diabetes: the Silent Killer is aired at 09:06am GMT and it is repeated a number of times throughout the day. The series is presented by Justin Webb, the BBC’s North American Editor, whose son has Type 1 diabetes. It is also available from the BBC World Service Website as a podcast.

Living in the USA, his son has the most up to date medical care for his condition, but the presenter examines the impact and possible future of Type 1 diabetes, and I would recommend it as a very good listen.

The Perils of Self-Infliction

After having been drenched by numerous intense downpours this week, I am very aware of the drawbacks of living in wonderful scenic Swansea. Childhood memories of the Water Cycle, sea-evaporation-clouds-hills-rain are not quite true because the rain never makes it to the hills round here – maybe its just tired – but it should make it more than a mile inland surely???

Anyway, I was musing that in some way my regular wettings under torrential rain could be self-inflicted by my love of living in Swansea!

This has some relevance with news this week that some medics in our troubled and over-stretched Hospital Accident and Emergency Departments are considering charging certain individuals for treatment. This is a radical departure for the National Health Service, charging people at the point of need, but the problem has reached epidemic proportions. The cause are those young people that choose to imbibe so much alcohol that they experience medical problems, clogging up emergency rooms with the consequences of binge drinking. The medics have a point, their resources should be given to non-self inflicted injury!

However, if this principle of self-infliction is taken to its logical end, surely individuals who experience the onset of Type 2 diabetes because of bad lifestyle choices, lack of exercise and the wrong food may also be subject to charges because of self-infliction! Its just a thought…

The Blue Genes Time Bomb

I’ve been in very reflective mode recently, with the anniversary of my mother’s death at age 41 releasing a number of memories, both quirky and sad…

I was distraught at 16, holding her on her last morning during a severe asthma attack, until I was moved out of the bedroom by the GP attempting resuscitation. My mother had contracted tuberculosis, a rarity in 1980, and because of asthma from her childhood, didn’t really have a hope of recovery. In her family, chronic asthma skipped a generation, passing from her grandmother to my mother. tick-tock, tick-tock… It is also present in a couple of my nieces and nephews, but with the hope of improved medication, they have a good hope of avoiding fatal asthma attacks.

I am now 42, a year older than my mother was, and yet on the morning of her death, a relative said that she thought that it would have been me to die before my mother. I suppose she had a bit of a point. I was born at 27 weeks, weighing less than 2 kg, given only 5 minutes to live and the almost inevitable cerebral palsy afterwards, due to the infancy of neonatal care in 1966. Follow that with meningitis as a toddler, Type  1 diabetes at 10, with all its hypoglycaemic comas and an accidental medical personnel-induced hyperglycaemic coma which sent me into intensive care 60% dehydrated, and doing a very good impression of an Egyptian mummy! tick-tock, tick-tock!

There is no doubt that the asthma gene eventually played a major role in the death of my mother. My development of type 1 diabetes, where my own immune system caused the disease. It destroyed the smallest, most delicate and, as research into the side effects of diabetes is now showing, one of the most important organs, the Islets of Langerhans within the pancreas, which produce insulin. tick-tock, tick-tock…

This consequence of this genetic destruction, with the visual, kidney, circulation, hearing, dementia, depression and other problems that we are told are in store for us if we don’t try to slow it down, is a genetic time bomb of nuclear proportions. tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock…. BANG

Roll on stem cell technology, our best help for genetic disarmament!!!

Recycling and Regeneration

I’ve been having an interesting experience this week putting out the rubbish. Swansea Council has been encouraging its residents to recycle, and has made further improvements by allowing the recycling of cardboard recently. So there I am, filling recycling bags with a mountain of cat food boxes (it’s only now that I realise just how much my cat eats!) feeling good about being green. My small contribution to solving a very big problem.

Moving to another recycling theme, I know there has been some pressure in the medical community for the adoption of the concept of “implied consent” for the donation of organs after death. After all, there is a worldwide shortage of donors and no prospect of improvement in the situation. A recent UK poll showed a large majority of people in favour of organ donation. However, there is a relatively small proportion of the population that carry the card showing active consent to the donation of organs after death. It is hoped that implied consent will make more organs available for transplantation.

I certainly agree with the concept, though over 30 years of Type 1 Diabetes has made most of my organs useless for donation. As one in three diabetics will develop kidney disease, as a group we are very grateful recipients of the process, but are unable to reciprocate because of the internal damage this disease causes to our own bodies. There was an item on ABC news in the USA recently adding to the gloom. It is common knowledge that our condition can damage our sight, but now there is evidence that diabetics could experience twice the level of hearing loss of the general population. Hey, ho, …. fight the good fight!

On a much more positive note, the work on stem cells promises much for chronic conditions like diabetes. These cells will eventually, I hope, allow the body to regenerate. This, along with other promising therapies, such as a Patient’s Recovery from Terminal Skin Cancer reported today (thanks to the Daily Telegraph), offer something for most of us.

Unfortunately, on a personal note, I wish to mark the imminent passing of a wonderful human being from this world to the next. Such regenerative therapies are coming too late to save her from secondary cancer, but she definitely fought the good fight.