April 2025
The cure is coming. Someday. But we can’t sit by waiting for it to happen. We have to take care of ourselves now. Our long-term health and day-to-day quality of life depends on it. The last thing any of us wants is to regret not having done more when the cure finally arrives. And that’s what we’re here for! Please allow us the opportunity to guide, assist and coach you to the best possible care of your diabetes. I hope you enjoy this month’s edition of Diabetes Bites, featuring columns from several of our outstanding clinical team members, news from the world of diabetes, and updates on several of our programs/services. As always, please reach out if there is anything we can do to assist you in reaching your personal diabetes goals. Call 610-642-6055 or send an email to info@integrateddiabetes.com.
Gary Scheiner MS, CDCES
Just Five More Years
It’s a tradition as old as grandma’s chicken soup and the Army-Navy football game: being told by the powers-that-be that a cure for diabetes is just five years away. That’s what I was told when I came down with T1D back I the 80s, as have people who were diagnosed long before and after me.Well, I’ll tell you what I tell all of my patients: DON’T BELIEVE IT.My skepticism has nothing to do with conspiracy theories or government ineptitude. It has to do with the immense challenge that diabetes presents. We’re talking about a large-scale, molecular-level foul-up that seems hell-bent on preserving itself. The body’s immune system is incredibly complex and sophisticated. It’s going to take a series of small victories before we have anything that resembles an actual cure. Not that we don’t have reason for hope. Islet cell transplantation, protective encapsulation, targeted immunosuppression and closed-loop technologies didn’t even exist 20 years ago. These and other developments get us ever closer to putting this insidious disease to rest. And technological developments like CGM certainly make living with diabetes much easier. But none of this changes the fact that T1D is going to be with us for a while. Progress towards a cure is a bumpy road. Vertex recently reported that their much-hyped immunosuppression-free islet transplant procedure failed to produce sufficient insulin in study subjects. The company is now looking at alternative cell lines and protective mechanisms to (hopefully) achieve success. As people living with T1D, we can gain inspiration from companies like Vertex, for whom giving up is not an option. We can’t let bumps in the road stop us. When something doesn’t work, it’s time to try something else.
The cure is coming. Someday. But we can’t sit by waiting for it to happen. We have to take care of ourselves now. Our long-term health and day-to-day quality of life depends on it. The last thing any of us wants is to regret not having done more when the cure finally arrives. And that’s what we’re here for! Please allow us the opportunity to guide, assist and coach you to the best possible care of your diabetes. I hope you enjoy this month’s edition of Diabetes Bites, featuring columns from several of our outstanding clinical team members, news from the world of diabetes, and updates on several of our programs/services. As always, please reach out if there is anything we can do to assist you in reaching your personal diabetes goals. Call 610-642-6055 or send an email to info@integrateddiabetes.com.Until there’s a cure…
Gary Scheiner MS, CDCES
