We can stop diabetes with more funding for research, education
The Food and Drug Administration has approved what could be one of the biggest breakthroughs in the treatment of type 1 diabetes in decades.
Dubbed an “artificial pancreas,” the MiniMed 670G is an implantable pump that senses blood glucose levels and delivers precise insulin doses to diabetic patients. Devices like these could make syringes for injecting insulin and manual blood monitors obsolete.
Unfortunately, victories like this in the battle against diabetes remain rare. Even though the condition is one of the top causes of death in the United States, research is grossly underfunded, especially compared to other diseases that kill far fewer Americans. Just as troubling, public awareness of how to prevent diabetes — and how to manage it effectively — remains inadequate.
The medical community has the power to stop the diabetes epidemic in its tracks — but only if it makes diabetes research and education a much bigger priority.
More than 1 in 10 Floridians currently has diabetes — the 15th-highest rate in the United States. Worse, incidence of the disease has been rising for years. The number of cases in the United States shot up 44 percent between 2004 and 2014.
Diabetes takes a toll not just on the health of millions of Americans but on the economy, too. The disease costs Florida more than $24 billion a year — and the entire country about $250 billion annually. That’s bigger than the yearly economic output of most states.
Worldwide, cases have more than tripled since 1980. Diabetes-related costs now account for nearly 12 percent of health-care expenditures worldwide.
For developing nations especially, diabetesrelated expenses can be crippling. In several Caribbean countries, as many as one-quarter of adults suffer from the condition. All told, it costs the region nearly $500 million a year.
Why is diabetes so expensive? The disease often leads to life-threatening conditions like heart attack, stroke and kidney failure. In fact, diabetes is responsible for 28 percent of all end-stage kidney disease in the Caribbean.
Compared to these staggering treatment costs, research funding for diabetes is a pittance.
Consider that the disease kills 28 times more Americans each year than HIV/AIDS. Yet the National Institutes of Health spend nearly three times as much annually on HIV/ AIDS research as on diabetes research.
Given the enormous promise of so much of today’s diabetes research, this lack of funding is a missed opportunity.
Researchers at Harvard and MIT, for instance, are exploring a technique for making large numbers of insulin-creating cells that, once delivered to type 1 diabetes patients, could keep the disease at bay for years at a time. Johnson & Johnson, together with biotech firm Viacyte, is currently developing the first-ever stem-cell treatment for diabetes. Boston-based Intarcia, meanwhile, is working on its own implantable insulin pump that’s no larger than a matchstick.
In short, we’ve never been closer to curing diabetes. But meeting that goal will take far longer if research funding remains as sparse as it is today.
Halting the epidemic will also require a more aggressive effort to prevent and diagnose the disease. More than one-third of American adults have pre-diabetes; yet 90 percent of them aren’t aware of their condition.
This is where government agencies and academic institutions could have a significant impact.
The school where I teach — St. George’s University in Grenada — has already taken up this cause. We’re collaborating with Grenada’s Ministry of Health on a school nutrition policy to advocate for healthy consumption habits. We’ve also worked with the ministry to launch programs that promote physical activity in schools and offer exercise classes to the community. Both initiatives educate students and citizens about chronic diseases like diabetes.
And in collaboration with the Windward Islands Research and Education Foundation, we’ve released a short video and held presentations for the Grenadian community on the “touch-toe” test. This simple examination allows screeners to test for any loss of sensitivity in the feet, which can be an indicator for peripheral neuropathy mainly associated with diabetes complication. Early intervention for someone who fails the test can mitigate the risk of gangrene or even amputation.
Ending the diabetes epidemic is within reach — if we commit to funding the most promising medical research and effectively educating the public about the disease.