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Sonia Sotomayor and the Future of Type 1 Diabetes

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getty images
sonia[1].jpg
getty images
When Sonia Sotomayor was a young girl she loved Nancy Drew, according to President Obama. But "when she was diagnosed with diabetes at the age of 8, she was informed that people with diabetes can't grow up to be police officers or private investigators like Nancy Drew," said the President when he nominated her to the Supreme Court. "In essence she was told she'd have to scale back her dreams."

Times change. Judge Sotomayer's discipline in controlling her type 1 diabetes, in which the body destroys its own insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas, is so effective that her doctor says there's no evidence she suffers from any of the complications of the condition common in people who've had it for decades. She controls her blood sugar better than 98 percent of people with type 1, according to the New York Times.

That makes her a role model for many iVillagers--along with Mary Tyler Moore, of course.
mtm1_136[1].jpg "My nephew was diagnosed with Type I diabetes at age 8," writes one iVillager. "The discipline that that disorder requires is phenomenal. Fortunately, when he was diagnosed, I was able to find people familiar with Type I/IDDM who were able to clue me in that with discipline, someone with Type I can play professional hockey or run a marathon. BUT - it requires enormous discipline. One night alone with too much insulin, might be the last. So yeah, when I hear the Sotomayor has been coping with diabetes since age 8, my respect for her increases, dramatically." 

Fortunately, the future for children and young adults diagnosed with type 1 is getting brighter. Continuous pumps and monitors make a hard job a little easier, even for toddlers. Research continues on an "artificial pancreas", a seamless system that would continuously monitor blood sugar and control it through insulin.

But what if the condition could be prevented entirely? A vaccine shows promise. So do simple acts, like breastfeeding and following recommendations on introducing solid foods:

 "Although there is a lot of research on the environmental causes of type 1 diabetes, we still do not know them and don't completely understand why the disease is on the rise all over the world," says Dana Dabelea, MD, PhD, a associate professor of epidemiology at the Colorado School of Public Health, University of Colorado, Denver. "Among the most interesting hypotheses are those related to various early life exposures, especially recent changes in infant diet patterns (i.e., overfeeding, earlier introduction of solid foods, etc), which may result in increased rate of childhood growth in both weight and height, thus creating an additional burden or stress on insulin-producing beta cells (the overload hypothesis)."

Whatever one's politics, one can appreciate the power of Judge Sotomayor's example for parents of kids with type 1. But let's hope that some day we won't need role models anymore.

Related links:
Type 1 Diabetes Center

Stem Cells Buy Freedom from Insulin for Type 1 Diabetics

Most Kids with Type 1 Diabetes Lack Vitamin D


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Posted by Robert Barnett on July 14 at 1:06 PM | | More: Diabetes | Comments (0) Bookmark This Post!

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