Ware is being recognized for several reasons, including coming back from a serious knee injury and also for battling Type 1 diabetes. Ware was diagnosed with diabetes in March 2009 after losing 15 pounds in three weeks. His early struggles with diabetes slowed his knee rehabilitation.

In addition to several other charitable efforts, Ware makes it a priority to spread the word about the importance of healthcare screening through speeches and interviews.

“Ware’s return to football activity reflects the courage, dedication, and discipline of an Ed Block Courage award recipient,” according to a release. “His teammates took note of his courage to overcome a potentially life threatening and career ending condition and make it back to the level of physical conditioning and dedication it takes to be an NFL player.”

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Blogger Amy Tenderich of Diabetes Mine recently interviewed Strand, who wears a Minimed Paradigm insulin pump, about the competition. Below are some of the highlights of that conversation. I recommend checking out the full interview here.

• Nat doesn’t wear a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) on a daily basis. Initially she shied away from it because of the cost, but on the show she found that it wouldn’t work well in the race, where blood sugars vary wildly during very long days, stressful activities and irregular meal schedules. Plus, the one she had was beeping during her limited sleep time, actually preventing her from getting rest.
• The producers of the show did not provide her with any special help. She carried all of her supplies and snacks – a month’s worth. Her partner carried duplicates in order to prepare for a worst-case scenario.
• Strand said the show’s producers had no issues with her competing with diabetes. She said it helped that Kat was a physician.
• There were moments where Strand felt her diabetes might screw things up for her team. Instances such as when they had to get in little boats where she had to take her pump off and then put it back on. It slowed the team down a bit.
• She did get some nasty hypos, but brought Power Bars and tested about every two hours.
• With her newfound fame, she plans to help raise diabetic awareness and has already donated to the ADA.

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Many of the top news items, as expected, were related to research towards a cure. I hope one day researchers make Diabetes News Hound unnecessary by curing this disease.

The year started out with news that Revivivor Inc., and the University of Pittsburgh said they successfully ‘cured’ a diabetic laboratory monkey by injecting it with insulin-producing cells, known as islets, from genetically modified pigs. Scientists altered the pigs by giving them a gene that makes a protein found on the surface of human cells. The protein helps to regulate the body’s attack response to foreign bodies. One monkey in the experiment maintained normal glucose levels and remained diabetes-free for 13 months before researchers voluntarily destroyed the animal in order to study it further. Other monkeys in the study only remained diabetes-free for a number of months. The company said it planned to apply for human trials

In June we reported that researchers used experimental gene therapy to cure mice with Type 1 diabetes by addressing both aspects of the disease: lack of insulin production and the autoimmune component.

Around Halloween, news broke that researchers from the University of California at Irvine were working on a new kind of islet transplant involving a small patch-like device, made of seaweed and containing islet cells, that is placed on the pancreas. The thin patch, which looks kind of like a flap of skin, is made of a semi-permeable membrane that allows small substances, such as glucose, water, certain drugs, and salt to pass through, but blocks larger anti-bodies. The size of the pores in the patch can be adjusted chemically in order to keep the transplanted cells alive.

More recently, we ran an article citing Ann Simpson, a professor and researcher at the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia saying she expects a cure within three years.

There were also several developments on the long-awaited artificial pancreas, an externally worn device that combines continuous glucose monitoring, an insulin pump and a computer algorithm that combines to work like an actual functioning pancreas.

Researchers say the artificial pancreas may be available in a few years. Currently it is in the testing phase and has been tried on patients staying in a hospital overnight. The versions of the artificial pancreas used during the trial were pretty large. (See:  Artificial Pancreas May Be Right Around the Corner).

We also got word of an interesting second type of artificial pancreas that has been patented and is currently in preclinical trials and is at least 5 to 10 years away.  It works like this: the artificial pancreas is held in a metal casing and implanted between the bottom rib and the hip. It contains a supply of insulin that is kept in place by a gel barrier. When the diabetic’s blood sugar rises, the gel begins to liquefy, releasing insulin. As the blood sugar comes back down, the gel hardens again, curbing the flow of insulin into the body. In effect, the metal pancreas mimics the activity of a healthy pancreas. The insulin in the metal pancreas would need to be refilled every few weeks.

There was also news that researchers from India’s National Institute of Immunology say they have created a type of insulin that Type 1 diabetics only need to inject once a month. The new insulin (SIA-II), which has only been tested on rats, mice and rabbits up until this point, lasts up to 120 days in the body with just a single injection.

BAD BEHAVIOR

There were a number of stories focusing on diabetics or parents of diabetics exhibiting bad behavior in 2010.
In June, word that Leonard Campos, 59, was arrested on manslaughter charges after an hypoglycemic event resulted in a single vehicle wreck that killed a pedestrian and injured Campos and his 18-year-old passenger. Campos says he went into diabetic shock while driving, causing the terrible accident, but police say he could have done more to prevent the crash that killed 64-year old Peggy Mikkelsen, who was pulling weeds in her front yard when she was crushed by a trailer that was thrown from Campos’ work truck. Campos lost control of his truck, which hit a mound of dirt and became airborne before striking a utility poll, rolling over several times and catching on fire. Campos was also injured in the crash and airlifted to the hospital with head injuries. (See an exclusive Q&A with the District Attorney in the case here: DA in Car Crash Death: Diabetes Not on Trial)
In a separate story, Gregory and Yvonne Latham, the parents of a 17-year old girl with Type 1 diabetes, have been convicted of second-degree murder and felony willful child endangerment in the diabetes-related death of their daughter Nanette. A jury found that the couple failed to do the bare minimum to care for the girl, who had Type 1 diabetes and died shortly after slipping into a coma in April 2006. Defense attorneys argued that the Gregory Latham, 63 and Yvonne Dee Latham, 53 thought their daughter had the flu and didn’t realize the seriousness of the situation until it was too late. On the way to the hospital, Nanette went into cardiac arrest. Doctors found that her blood sugar was 1,295.

An Indiana couple also faced serious charges after they repeatedly failed to give their 15-year old, Type 1 diabetic daughter insulin, nearly killing the girl. Steve, the girl’s father, and Shelly Wilburn, the girl’s stepmother, were arrested on charges of neglecting a dependent and held on $75,000 bond. The teen had been hospitalized several times due to ketoacidosis, a sometimes fatal condition resulting from a lack of insulin in the body.

A probable cause affidavit cited by Fox, notes that the girl was neglected beginning in February 2004 and continuing through late July 2010. She was first diagnosed in mid-2002 at the age of 7. She was admitted to the hospital in January 2007 and February 2009 because of diabetic ketoacidosis. In September 2009, she was admitted to the hospital yet again, and was then placed in state’s custody

 GONE TOO SOON

A number of people with diabetes lost their lives to the disease in 2010. Some were famous, some were not, but no matter their public profile, they all lived with diabetes and their deaths impacted many.

One of the most heart-wrenching stories of 2010 was about a 13-year old girl named Eilish, who died of a condition referred to Dead in Bed Syndrome. Although she had Type 1 diabetes, she appeared otherwise healthy. She went to bed seemingly fine and never woke up. Eilish’s death seemed to hit many in the diabetes community hard, even those who did not know her and never heard of her before they read about her death. Perhaps that’s because her death serves as a reminder of the seemingly randomness and unfair nature of the disease, and its potentially dire consequence. This scenario could happen to any one of us, and unfortunately happens to a small number of us with Type 1 diabetes each year.

Johnson & Johnson heiress Casey Johnson, 30, was also found dead in her home in January. However, Johnson’s lifestyle was more likely the culprit, according to report. Whereas hypoglycemis is suspected to be the cause of Dead in Bed Syndrome, authorities said Johnson died of ketoacidosis, extremely high blood sugar. A People magazine article cited an unidentified police source who said the cops suspect that Johnson came home from a night of partying and “passed out” without taking her medication.  She was dead for several days before police found her.

Johnson, who was the daughter of New York Jets owner Woody Johnson, was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes as a child and required insulin shots daily.

CENTER STAGE

On the pop culture front, Diabetes took a much more public profile. Rocker Bret Michaels, a Type 1 diabetic, won the Celebrity Apprentice and raised money for the American Diabetes Association. Michaels, who suffered a number of life-threatening incidents prior to the live finale of the show, helped push diabetes further into the spotlight.

American Idol runner-up Crystal Bowersox also did her fair share. After an early-season diabetes-related rush to the hospital Bowersox captured the hearts of many Idol-watchers and made it to the finals. In addition Bowersox and Micheals, Nick Jonas continued to advocate for diabetes, taking his message to Washington D.C. and speaking to politicians about the disease.

In sports, Kris Freeman competed in a trio of cross-country skiing events at the Olympics, becoming the first Type 1 diabetic to compete at the highest levels of the sport. Georgetown Hoyas’ leading scorer, junior Austin Freeman, 20,  was also diagnosed with diabetes.  He received the diagnosis shortly after he was rushed to the emergency room. On the gridiron, Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler has shaken off early seasons questions about his diabetes and is finishing the seasons strong.

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Morgan will miss several episodes of the show to recover from the surgery. The writers are expected to write Morgan’s absence into the show’s script by saying the character had a meltdown. In a strange coincidence, the actor playing Morgan’s sidekick on the show, Grizzwald ‘Grizz’ Chapman, also had a kidney transplant earlier this year.

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“The Diabetes Rap” stars Luke Widbin, a Type 1 diabetic that won the 2008 World Diabetes Day Young Voices video contest.

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Nat Strand and Kat Chang, both doctors, said they planned to donate some of the money diabetes research. Strand has Type 1 diabetes. While the show didn’t focus much on some of the curveballs diabetes presented to Strand, she shed some light on the subject in a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly.

She said she coped with both large and small diabetes-related tasks. Small items included figuring out how lug around a month’s worth of diabetes supplies and sugary snacks, and keep her insulin cool during trips to places like Ghana and Oman.

Dealing with her insulin pump, lack of sleep and time changes were more challenging and often required her to expend extra mental energy. “You know, if I get low blood sugar, I need to get sugar right away and eat, and sometimes you’re doing a leg for 16 hours with no food, my blood sugar would get really high,” she told Entertainment Weekly. “If my pump settings are time-set in Los Angeles, then when you’re in England, you’re reversed: When you’re normally sleeping, you’re awake! Even when we were trying to get a few hours of sleep, my pump would be alarming, and beeping, and it would need to be changed, it would need a new battery, my blood sugar was too high.”

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For the past 32 years, Santo partnered with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) on the Ron Santo Walk to Cure Diabetes. Patrick Reedy, the director of the organization’s Illinois chapter called Santo the “rock” of the organization in a recent radio interview.

In June, Santo announced he was cutting back on his travel with the Cubs due to health issues.

At a time when diabetes was seen as a much more limiting disease, Santo was likely the only Type 1 diabetic playing in the Major Leagues in the 1960s. Today there are several prominent athletes with Type 1 diabetes, including:

* Jay Cutler, quarterback for the Chicago Bears

* Brandon Morrow, a pitcher for the Toronto Blue Jays

*Adam Morrison, NBA basketball player

* Kris Freeman, Olympic Cross Country Skier

Santo developed Type 1 diabetes at the age of 18 and kept it a secret for part of his playing career due to fear it may impact the way people viewed him. “I feared that if the Cubs found out and I slumped badly, they would attribute it to the diabetes and send me back to the minors—or worse, release me,” Santo wrote in a 2003 article for Guideposts.

Santo later suffered from some of the more dire complications of the disease as both of his legs had to be amputated. For the first 42 years of having the disease, he was in relatively good shape. Then, as he puts it, diabetes “caught up with me.” More recently, he passed out from unexpectedly low blood sugar levels.

In the Guideposts article Santo wrote about his battle with diabetes and how he managed to keep the disease a secret from his employer, teammates and fans for many years. Without many of the tools we have today, such as blood sugar monitors, insulin pumps, or much of the knowledge about the disease, Santo defied the odds by carving out a near-Hall of Fame career. Many feel he should be enshrined in Cooperstown as one of the all-time greats. You can and check out the article here.

Santo later told his teammates, but asked them to keep his secret. Only in 1971 did the public learn of the disease. “It’s funny. I always thought I’d make my biggest mark as a ballplayer, but it was after I started speaking up about diabetes that I really made a difference,” he wrote in the article.

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When I was diagnosed with diabetes at age 14, I didn’t really have anyone to look up to,” Canyon, who has had diabetes for 26 years, said. “There wasn’t anyone saying ‘I’m living my dreams and I have diabetes. This song is about living your dreams and not letting anything stand in your way.”

In Canada, where the song has already been released, the single “I Believe in Angels” has reached number five on the country music charts.

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Vidal, a 46 year old former master driller, reportedly suffers from kidney problems. After being trapped, he was considered one of the ‘weaker’ miners and was the seventh person rescued. He appeared calm and in good spirits when he reached the surface.  

Vidal first caught the public’s attention when his note, 17 days after the collapse, alerted the rescuers that the miners had survived the disaster and were indeed alive, but trapped. At this point, it is unclear exactly what form of diabetes Vidal has. However, news accounts and logic imply that he has Type 2 diabetes.  

A New York Times article said that Vidal and another miner received special meals for medical reasons that were delivered to the miners through a small hole drilled specifically to provide the trapped miners with food. Coca Cola was replaced with diet soda, canned fruit replaced by fresh apples and sugarless marmalade was used in place of jam. The food was transported in a refrigerated truck each day, vacuum-sealed and delivered to the miners through a plastic tube.

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“Feel Better” is from Lang’s recently-released debut album entitled “Time Has Stopped.” Lang was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes during the fourth grade at the age of 10 years old. Her younger sister also has Type 1 diabetes, having been diagnosed at only 18 months old.

“I never let diabetes get in the way of my dream,” Lang says. “Diabetes is just a fact of who I am. I know there are millions of others out there like me, who are coming face to face with diabetes either as kids or as adults. My message to them is that together, we can put a stop to this disease.”

In a recent interview with the blog DiabetesMine, Lang says that diabetes is just a part of life. “I take care of my diabetes because I value my life,” she told the blog. “It’s become a part of me, and I’ve never been angry about it. I’ve learned to just accept it as a part of me and my body.”

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