Diabetes Prevention and Care
MPR News reporter Lorna Benson talks live with experts in diabetes research from 1 pm to 2pm
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Join us at 1:00 pm today for a discussion about the latest research and practices in diabetes prevention and care. MPR News reporter Lorna Benson will lead a discussion with Dr. Lisa Chow from the University of Minnesota and Dr. Robert Rizza from the Mayo Clinic. -
Thanks for joining our live chat on diabetes today. We're joined by Dr. Robert Rizza from the Mayo Clinic and Dr. Lisa Chow from the University of Minnesota. Let's start with you Dr. Rizza. Please briefly explain the difference between Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. There is an important distinction between these two forms of the disease, as many patients have pointed out to me during my work on this topic. -
People with type 1 diabetes are unable to secete insulin due to the fact that their body's immune system has destroyed the insulin screting cells in their pancreas. People with type 2 diabetes can secrete insulin but not enough for their body's needs -
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No. People with diabetes, as do people who do not have diabetes should try to eat a balanced diet high in fiber, low in saturated fats with the right amount of calories. Same for people with type 2 diabetes but if they are overweight, then they have to pay even more attention to calories
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Dr Rizza: My niece is 2 years old and was just diagnosed with type 1 five months ago. Her parents are considering a pump but are unsure of how she would deal with it and if she would mess with it too often. She also has a twin sister and they love to cause trouble :) Are there any other new technologies out there that are more suitable for young children or are insulin pumps still the best option for them?
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Insulin pumps are useful in a variety of circumstances but agree are a challenge in very small children. Usuing a combination of so called "basal" insulin (long acting and flat throughout the day) along with quicker acting insulin at meals appropriate for how much the child eats many times works quite well
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Remember the qoal is to "prevent, optimally treat and utimately cure" diatebes. "We" (the collective we of socienty) know how to prevent disease and can appropriately treat it in the vast majority of people. There are a variety of tantalizing recent findings that indeed make a cure within our grasp. However no guaurantees. on the other hand, if not a cure, I strongly suspect we will come close
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Dr. Rizza: Question for my father who has Type 2 Diabetes (10 yrs) very thin and consistently eats veggies/low carb diet. Numbers run very high sometimes when he wakes up. Forcing him to eat a few crackers and go for a walk. He blames it on bad insulin? Is bad insulin a factor and is that common? -
Needless to say "bad" insulin is a very general term. People with type 2 diabetes commonly are unable to secrete enough insulin during the night to control the amount of glucose released by their liver (which stores glucose after meals in order to feed the brain glucose between meals). In many instance they need a small dose of insulin or a specific type of pill before bed to maintian the balance during the night so their glucose values will be normal when they awaken
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As we are letting the doctors reply, here's the link to Lorna's series. minnesota.publicradio.org
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Dr. Chow: Being a type 1 diabetic for 36 years with no complications (but taking 6 shots a day), why are so many parents looking at an insulin pump as the magic bullet for their children, when I see so many kids dialing up or down the amount of insulin that need so they can eat whatever they want rather than learning to take shots and recoginze that diet and exercise are extremely important. Also most doctors I talk to don't seem to understand that "concentration" eats up lot of glucose (ie when taking a test in school or in my case when I do embroidery or do some sewing and my blood sugar will drop faster than when if I'm exercising!
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There are certain things in life you can control and some you can not. Insulni resistance and the so called "metabolic syndrome" can be caused by some genetic abnormalites that you can not change. However, in most instances it is due to more fat than your body can handle and less activity tha your body needs
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Dr. Chow: How do you feel about the latest diabetes research? minnesota.publicradio.org
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Absolutely. We and others showed many years ago that a device that can continuously monitor glucose and then infuse insulin can keep glucose values normal. The challenge has been to make these devices portable. There now are several candidates well on the way to this goal
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