
April 6, 2006
Research: Cure
Question from Jacksonville, Florida, USA:
When do you think scientists will find a cure for diabetes at the rate they are going now? Are they going to use a dog to find out what’s causing diabetes since dogs have really good sense of smell?
Answer:
Nobody really knows exactly when a cure for diabetes will be found. There are thousands of scientists all around the world trying to figure out what causes diabetes and what we might to do get the body to make insulin correctly again. It’s all very complicated and very expensive. It probably won’t be a dog that helps us figure this out, but a lot of scientific detective work, understanding how the body chemistry works and lots of experiments in laboratories. Until then, it is best to work hard to understand how insulin works, how food can be balanced, how exercise helps, how to monitor frequently and how to balance all these pieces together each day even though it’s difficult. In the late 1980’s, there was a television movie, Glory Enough for All about the discovery of insulin. If you are a good reader, then you might be interested in reading The Discovery of Insulin by Michael Bliss.
SB