yada yada: July 2014
Support, Information and a Voice for the Type 1 Community  
Support, Information and a Voice for the Type 1 Community
In this issue
T1DN webinar
#showmeyourpump
Human gut cells produce insulin
Artificial pancreas trial
PBS review into pumps
Interesting links
Quick shots - Hot topics on our forums
Quick links
Join Our List
Join Our Mailing List
 

Can you believe it has been three months since the last edition of Yada Yada? Time has flown and it's good to be back.

T1DN is really excited that our next webinar is tomorrow night. Exercise and sports physiologist Allan Bolton will present a talk called Exercising your T1 Demons, and it is sure to be informative and motivational. If you want to learn how to better incorporate exercise with T1, there are few better people to listen to. Registration details are in the article below.

This Yada edition we also report on the #showmeyourpump hashtag that's trending on Twitter and the beauty pageant contestant who started it. There's also some exciting research about training human gut cells to produce insulin (it's much more encouraging to report on human research than on another 'cure' in a mouse) and more data from an artificial pancreas trial.

Enjoy!

Facebook icon  Twitter t icon
T1DN webinar - Exercising your T1 demons
The next T1DN webinar is on Tuesday, July 29 at 8 pm AEST. (Adjust the time if you're not in the eastern states of Australia.) You can register for the webinar through this link.

We're really excited to have Allan Bolton join us to talk about Exercising your T1 Demons. We've profiled Allan and his site ext1d.com.au in a previous Yada. Allan has had T1 for over 35 years and is an experienced endurance athlete; he backs that personal experience up with being an accredited exercise and sport physiologist, diabetes educator and exceptional public speaker.

Allan Bolton If you haven't heard Allan talk before, try to make time to jump on this webinar - his enthusiasm and desire to help people with T1D is tremendous and infectious. You're almost certain to learn something about how to handle exercise with T1D.

To describe some of what he will cover, Allan said, "Feeling out of control is a key contributor to T1D burnout, this is especially so when exercise is on the agenda. For most, regular exercise is simply about showing up on time, if only! When you have T1 there is way more to consider. The extra T1 challenges around going high, low and anywhere in between often lead to fear, confusion and frustration i.e. the 'why bothers'."

So join us and learn how to overcome your exercise demons and discover some exercise joy.  

Remember it's not far away - Tuesday, July 29 at 8 pm AEST - and you can register here.

*****************Sponsored Announcement*****************
Have you been feeling down, unmotivated, and lost interest in things?

You may be troubled by depression, which affects 1 in 5 people with diabetes.

The good news is that depression is treatable!

Researchers at St Vincent's Hospital are currently recruiting participants for a study to explore the value of the Sadness Program, a 10-week online program for depression in people with Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes.

For more information, please visit the following website: https://trial.virtualclinic.org.au/homepage/apply. 

 
#showmeyourpump
Miss Idaho Sierra Sandison
Sierra Sandison - Photo from Susan Hessing Photography
In the last week the #showmeyourpump hashtag has been trending on Twitter accompanied by photos of people proudly displaying how they wear their pumps. Sierra Sandison started the hashtag after she wore her pump throughout the Miss Idaho competition, which she won. The picture of her wearing her pump in the bikini comp quickly went viral and #showmeyourpump took off.

Sierra blogged about her decision to openly wear her pump and said that she was inspired by the story of 1999 Miss America Nicole Johnson who also wore her pump during the competition. Sierra is now inspiring a new generation to feel comfortable with their pumps. It wasn't an easy decision for Sierra as she still feels a little scared to openly wear her pump. Sierra's interview with Kerri Sparling from Sixuntilme is definitely worth checking out if you'd like to read more.  

Sierra, and her pump, will now compete for the Miss America crown this September. You can follow Sierra on Facebook or Twitter @sierra_anne93. 

Human guts cells coaxed to produce insulin
Colombia University scientists have switched off a single gene in human gut cells and caused them to start producing insulin. Importantly, the cells produced the insulin in response to glucose in the same way beta cells in the pancreas would.

This technique has worked in mice previously and it's exciting that this proves the method could also work in humans. While this research is still in a cell model, the ultimate goal is to retrain existing cells in the gut to produce insulin - rather than trying to implant or regrow beta cells in the pancreas. This would avoid the complications caused by the immune system attack.
 
The next step involves the group looking for potential drugs that could switch off the gene in the gut. With clinical trials planned to start in a few years, we could see a simple drug treatment to restart insulin production. Although, widespread use is still years away even if everything proceeds perfectly, it's definitely something we'll be keeping an eye on.

One of the researchers involved has started an Ask Me Anything (AMA) on Reddit - great for more info direct from the source.

The research was published in Nature Communications.

Artificial pancreas trial
A recent US study provided encouraging news on the effectiveness of an artificial (or bionic) pancreas system. The study was closer to a real-world trial than previous efforts as meals and physical activity weren't regulated - participants could eat anything they wanted and exercise whenever they felt like it.

52 people, both adults and adolescents, took part in the trial and spent five days wearing an artificial pancreas system with both insulin and glucagon pumps, a CGM and an iPhone. The glucagon pump allows BGLs to be raised as well as lowered.

The study showed significant reductions in hypos and some reduction in high sugars - especially overnight.

It was also interesting that glucose levels were lower on days 2-5 of the trial compared to day 1 as the software, which runs on the iPhone, adapts to the individuals characteristics. We think software that learns how best to respond to your individual BGL trends could be extremely cool if it's proven to be effective and safe.

The artificial pancreas trial also got some good air-time on ABC Radio. The full text of the journal article is available from the New England Journal of Medicine.

PBS review queries value of pumps
The PBS has released a draft report of their review into the effectiveness of insulin pumps.

Insulin pump The major data for the report is from a literature review done by University of Adelaide. It looked at clinical outcomes - HbA1c and health-related quality of life - and cost effectiveness of pumps. The main focus was the eligibility criteria for the Insulin Pump Programme that subsidises pump costs for people under 18 and has so far helped supply nearly 500 pumps.

The review said that current evidence shows that being on a pump decreases HbA1C by 0.1-0.3%, which didn't meet their benchmark of 0.5% change for clinical significance. So they concluded that pumps don't have a significant effect. There was no data for whether this smaller reduction in HbA1c can affect long-term health or for the effect on quality of life.

The report did, however, suggest that pumps may be cost effective in people with high HbA1c, or who have severe hypos or hypo unawareness.

Comments have already closed but we'll keep an eye out for future details.

Interesting links
Quick shots
Hot topics on the Reality Check online forum include:

You can keep up to date with what's going on in the diabetes world by following us on Facebook or Twitter.
Thanks for reading, and don't forget you can always send us your feedback and comments by replying to this email. We'll see you next time!

From everyone at
The Type 1 Diabetes Network 
Join Our List
Join Our Mailing List