The Diabetes Control and Complications Trial (DCCT), a 10-year multicenter clinical trial, studied 1,441 people with T1D for an average of 6.5 years each, to examine whether intensive versus conventional methods of blood-glucose control could affect one’s development of dangerous diabetes complications. In 1993, staggering results from the trial proved that intensive therapy—where participants kept their HbA1c levels as close to normal as possible through frequent monitoring and insulin injections—reduces the risk of complications such as diabetic kidney, eye, and nerve disease by 35-76 percent, compared with what was then considered conventional treatment of one or two insulin injections daily and one urine or blood glucose test per day.

The DCCT is credited for spurring a change in the way diabetes is managed. But its effects did not end there. Most of the participants of the DCCT volunteered for the follow-up study beginning in 1994, called the Epidemiology of Diabetes Interventions and Complications (EDIC) study. This subsequent research has continued to uncover insights that could impact people with T1D today.

In 2002-2003, EDIC researchers determined that the period of intensive glucose control during the DCCT continued to reduce the risk of microvascular complications 7-8 years later, despite comparable glucose control between the two groups of participants after the initial study. Coined “metabolic memory,” this phenomenon suggests that implementing intensive glucose control as early as possible could help reduce the risk of complications down the line.

In 2005, EDIC researchers reported another interesting statistic: DCCT participants who had undergone intensive treatment during the study had fewer than half the number of cardiovascular complications compared with those treated conventionally, throughout an average of 17 years since their enrollment in the DCCT. For the first time, research showed that intensive glucose control could have long-term benefits for reducing heart attacks, strokes, and cardiovascular-related death in people with T1D.

New insights into hypoglycemia and the genetics of diabetes complications are also forming from the base of data that the DCCT study provided 30 years ago. These studies and future ones highlight the importance of a strong investment in long-term research—an investment that has been made possible through funding from organizations like JDRF, and with governmental support through the Special Diabetes Program (SDP), which makes up roughly one-third of U.S. government support for T1D research.

As advocates of T1D research, we can help protect and increase critical funding through JDRF and the SDP, so that long-term studies have the resources needed to continue revealing information that could improve and save lives. In addition to advocacy, people with T1D and their families can help research advance by participating in clinical trials. For more information, visit the JDRF Clinical Trials Connection website: https://trials.jdrf.org/patient/.

A person’s intestines—or “gut”—are home to a community of bacteria that are essential to metabolism and the normal development and function of the immune system. Early in life these bacteria, called gut microbes, help the body to establish immunoregulation. This is the process by which the immune system controls and balances all of its components and their interactions to defend against sickness and disease. But for reasons that are not known, immunoregulation development can go haywire and lead to the onset of an autoimmune disease. JDRF is funding research to investigate whether changes in gut microbes during early development lead to less-robust immunoregulation and the development of type 1 diabetes (T1D).

For more information about this new scientific finding and more JDRF research investments, you may read the rest of this article in JDRF’s recent publication of Countdown.

The lower weight of some pancreases may be attributable to a smaller number of insulin-producing beta cells. Thus, this discovery provides compelling evidence that people at risk of developing T1D may already have fewer beta cells in their pancreases even before changes in blood-glucose levels are detectable. more

Glucose responsive insulin (GRI) is a form of insulin that only works when the body’s blood-glucose levels start to rise. When blood sugar levels are in proper range, the insulin is inactive. GRI would profoundly and positively change the lives of people with T1D. Their need for injections to lower blood-sugar levels would largely disappear.

For more information on this new advancement in type 1 diabetes research, please visit the typeonenation blog!

We are energized and committed in this new year to work toward less until none… less burden, less invasive treatment, less complexity, less danger – less until no more T1D.  Please take a look at the attached video highlighting, JDRF’s own Tom Brobson, currently participating in human clinical trials for the artificial pancreas.  In Tom’s words, “You should never doubt that we are changing the world, because we are.”

A short video about Tom Brobson’s experience in the artificial pancreas trial is available via YouTube: http://youtu.be/XlNsak3UWWg.

For more information about JDRF’s funding in research advances to cure, treat, and prevent type 1 diabetes, please visit the JDRF research homepage.

100% of all donations will go directly to JDRF.

*Please note that Moe’s at National Place is not participating in this event.