Word: insulin
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Intensive insulin therapy may prevent or delay complications, but it also sharply increases the likelihood of hypoglycemia. For this reason, in 1982 the National Institutes of Health launched a clinical trial to assess the connection between blood-sugar levels and the development of complications. Half the 1,441 volunteers are following the standard policy of two insulin * shots a day. The rest belong to an intensive-therapy group that tries to keep blood sugar as close to normal as possible. Some participants, like Ken McDonald, are using insulin pumps. Others inject themselves with insulin four times a day. The results...
...years medical researchers have dreamed of not just controlling diabetes but preventing it. For Type I diabetes that goal seems tantalizingly close. Like multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis, Type I diabetes is known to be an autoimmune disorder. What this means is that the insulin-producing areas of the pancreas are attacked by the very cells charged with protecting the body from viruses and other invaders...
...prevents it from attacking the foreign tissue. Intriguingly, clinical trials in the U.S., Canada and France have shown that cyclosporine, when given to people with Type I diabetes, can turn off the autoimmune attack. Cyclosporine is an extremely toxic drug and, in most cases, a very poor trade for insulin. But the clear demonstration that diabetes can be stopped has stirred excitement in the medical community...
...sign that an autoimmune attack has begun is the appearance in the bloodstream of antibodies to the pancreatic cells and, later, to insulin itself. For nine years a Joslin Center research team led by immunologist Dr. George Eisenbarth has been tracking the appearance of these antibodies in 10,000 close relatives of Type I diabetics. It is now possible for the Joslin team to predict which otherwise symptomless relatives are likely to develop the disease in three years' time. Last May the Joslin and two other medical centers launched a program to treat identified potential diabetics with an antirejection drug...
...Hettler, have the Type II form of the disease. Paradoxically, the fact that Type II diabetes is less severe has made it more difficult to handle. Until recently, many physicians believed Type II was largely innocuous and counseled patients not to worry. True, many Type II diabetics never require insulin and get by on pills that stimulate the pancreas to produce the hormone. Over time, however, they develop the same terrible complications as their Type I counterparts. University of Michigan's Dr. Stefan Fajans vividly remembers the autoworker he diagnosed with Type II diabetes at age 41. Twenty years later...