Stem Cells

I have been involved in heavy debate in the comment section of diabetes mine concerning stem cell research. For those of you not following the recent passing of a bill in the House that is being brought to a vote in the Senate here is a little primer. The bill would allow for federal funding to be used to conduct research on donated embryos. The embryos that are created during in vitro fertilization and not used are frozen until they can be adopted or they are discarded. This legislation would allow the families involved in in vitro fertilization to donate those embryos to be used for research. This is not cloning. It does however require the destruction of an embryo. An act outlawed by the Dickey Amendment in 1995. Without being political or questioning others beliefs, it is time to let your legislators know how you feel about this issue. I admit it is a hard one for me. If you want to contact your legislator log onto the ADA advocate page for more information.

BD Diabetes - Diabetes News - Memory remains intact in type 1 diabetics

BD Diabetes - Diabetes News - Memory remains intact in type 1 diabetics
Memory remains intact in type 1 diabetics

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Some areas of cognitive function, or thinking ability, are impaired in patients with type 1 diabetes, but learning and memory remain intact, Dutch investigators report.

"The magnitude of the cognitive deficits is mild," report Dr. Augustina M. A. Brands, of University Medical Center, Utrecht, and colleagues, "but even mild forms of cognitive dysfunction might hamper everyday activities."

The researchers conducted a review of studies that looked at cognitive performance in diabetic patients. Thirty-three studies met the inclusion criteria and were included in the analysis.

As reported in the medical journal Diabetes Care, the team assessed intelligence, learning and memory, psychomotor activity and information processing, attention, cognitive flexibility, visual perception, and language. In addition, they looked into the possible effects of disease variables, including recurrent episodes of low blood sugar levels.

Compared with healthy subjects, those with type 1 diabetes had significantly lowered performance on the intelligence, speed of information processing, and psychomotor efficiency tests. Lowered performance was also observed on visual and sustained attention, cognitive flexibility, and visual perception.

"Our (review) does not support the idea that there are important negative effects from recurrent episodes of severe (low sugar levels) on cognitive functioning," Brands' team reports. On the other hand, the eye and nerve problems that can occur in diabetics do "appear to be associated with impaired cognition."

SOURCE: Diabetes Care, March 2005;28:726-735

I was just reading this article on line and found it a mite confusing. Is there evidence or not? In the final paragraph he says that there are no important negative effects but the rest of the article is loaded with what I would call negative effects. When he says significantly does he mean statistically significant because that is a huge difference. Has anyone ever heard of any similar research?

Pump Decision

Okay fellow bloggers, met with the dietician today and she asked if we had decided on a pump. I told her we were thinking minimed. She mentioned some others that she thought would be smaller. Any advice? Anybody want to share their favorite?

Fundraising, again

The deeper I drive myself into this the more I feel like I'm not doing enough. Just got back from the pancake breakfast to raise money for Team Olivia. The Millerstown Area Jaycees - of which I am president - hosted the event. It's nice to be able to network my community service. We raised a little over 500 dollars. Not bad considering we served almost 150 meals in a town of 400 people. I expected to make around 300 but was still a little disappointed because I felt like we were working hard today. One of the disappointments was that we underestimated the crowd so we ran out and bought more food - not convenient in rural America. And then ended up having more food than we needed. That really cuts into the profit margin.

Olivia has had three pretty good BG days. One high - chocolate cupcake at school that was underestimated - but generally in the normal range. Fellow bloggers have me really thinking more about the long term effects of her condition. Also Keri at Six Until Me has me thinking about how the rest of her life might be. Will she have the perseverance and vigilance, will she be strong, college, boyfriends, family. It's a lot to consider with the daily work of being a diabetic. One of the other teams in the Harrisburg Tour De Cure rides in memory of a family member who just gave up. She tried to manage her BG through diet even though she is a type 1. I say "in memory of" because she didn't survive. She went blind and then she died. The reality of the disease, the perseverance, the vigilance, it has got to be a ton of baggage.

Thanks

People are finally starting to comment on my posts. It feels like less of a solitary endeavor now. I also have been checking out others. I hope to be able to do more with this site but don't know much about programming. Thanks to Sandra Miller at A Shot in the Dark(see link to right) for information on the pump and getting ready. Her site is alot like I hope mine will be. Venting my frustrations and hoping that others can learn from them.

On the TeamOlivia front, last night Olivia was interviewed for an article in the Patriot News. And this morning I got an email asking about a radio and television appearance in early June. Juggle, juggle, juggle.

On the diabetes front, Olivia had a strange low prior to lunch yesterday (44). No way to explain it. She was 150 at 9:15 and the nurse at school gave her a little bit of juice to keep her up until lunch. I guess sometimes there is no explaining it.

A Shot in the Dark

A Shot in the Dark

Progress

With all the money already raised and the money that has been promised, I foresee us breaking the 10000 dollar mark this year. Giant kudos to Jamison who managed to raise 275 dollars in only 3 days. Hopefully everyone is out there making money, I wish they would enter it on the website. I know it all goes to a good cause but I am so competitive. I see the possibility of being the top fundraising team and I don't want to let that opportunity slip away. Presently, I am no even the top fundraiser on my own team. Guess I better get to work.

On another note, appointments have been scheduled for Olivia to start on the pump in September. The dietician feels that summer would not be appropriate because it doesn't represent her normal day. She is excited to lose some of the restrictions associated with injections. This past week was her birthday and my family came out to visit. There were many struggles about food choices. Sometimes it is very painful to tell a seven-year-old that she can't have dessert or a piece of cake or even a bite of someone elses.