Aaron: Flu vaccine, a storm in a teacup?

2 June 2010
19 Comments

Winter is well and truly upon us and as if to remind me, I’ve got my first cold of the season already!

So as I sit at home with a lovely bowl of chicken soup wrapped in my dressing gown feeling sorry for myself, I’m trying remember that:

1.A cold is not the same as a flu – a flu is awful! and,

Decide whether or not it’s worthwhile going in and getting the flu vaccine from my GP or not this year

I did go and get the vaccine last year but I got the flu anyway and so I wasn’t totally convinced it was worth it (even if it made it not so bad as it would have otherwise…

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By Aaron on 2 June 2010 at 9.00 am
Posted in Science & Research
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Helping with research: T1 parents.

17 May 2010
10 Comments

I spoke briefly last year of some studies which are being done into relatives of people with type one diabetes.

The main study us T1 parents can help out with is Trialnet, which, according to their documentation is the following (from the Liggins Institute’s documentation, in italics below):

Type 1 (or juvenile) diabetes is an important health problem that affects many people. We know that factors such as genes (DNA) play a major role in type 1 diabetes and that people with a close family member (blood relative) with type 1 diabetes have a 10 to 15 times greater risk of…

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By Nic on 17 May 2010 at 10.49 am
Posted in Kids & Teens, Science & Research
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Insulin in a pill?

11 May 2010
6 Comments

Well we’ve all heard of the inhalable insulin craze which pretty much self destructed into a haze of ineffectuality (is that a word?), with possible cancer scares to boot.

Now, it seems Novo Nordisk (among others) are exploring oral insulin in a different format: a pill. I’ll let you read the below article for yourself rather than regurgitate it:

http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/25243/page1/

I’m really glad there is research going into stuff like this but I have a few doubts about this (for T1 at least). How we could change a high BG as fast with a pill as we could with insulin via injection is beyond me (having said that, do you see my science degree? That would be because I don’t…

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By Nic on 11 May 2010 at 9.40 am
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Pig cells help hypo unawareness.

27 April 2010
3 Comments

The NZ Herald had an article today about the fifth NZ patient doing Prof Elliott’s pig cell trials for T1.

Simon Bilton (pictured) had the highest dose of pig cells of these trials, and reports that he’s seen the end of his hypo unawareness, but the rest of the outcomes of the trial will be noticeable in about a month.

While I was typing this post, TV One did a piece on the 6 o’clock news…. when it comes up on OnDemand I’ll post it below.

EDIT: Here is the link to the One News item: http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/pig-cells-new-hope-diabetes-patients-2-55-video-3495663

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By Nic on 27 April 2010 at 6.27 pm
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Interesting research re insulin pumps, multiple injections, CGMS.

5 March 2010
12 Comments

I’ve just come across two interesting pieces of research.

One:

A trial done in Norway between 1995 to 2004, involving 80 kids and adolescents using both multiple daily injections (MDI) and insulin pumps. The trial was set up to study the difference in HbA1c; incidence of hospitalisation for ketoacidosis and severe hypoglycaemia; and patient preference.

It was shown that the HbA1c levels of the patients decreased over time, which also coincided with the adoption of insulin pump therapy (76% of the patients were on pumps by the end of the ten years – unfortunately it doesn’t say what percentage were using them at the start). However, the adoption of insulin pumps didn’t seem to have an effect on the number…

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By Nic on 5 March 2010 at 8.43 am
Posted in CGMS, Hypos & Hypers, Insulin Pumps, Kids & Teens, Science & Research
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