Researchers have identified a gene, named Rfx6, needed by cells to develop into insulin-producing beta cells. They found that mice lacking the gene did not develop insulin-producing beta cells either. In people, they found a deficiency of Rfx6 resulted in the development of diabetes in those people.

Researchers admit they don’t fully understand the process by which insulin-producing beta cells develop, but now they know that Rfx6 plays a central part in it. Let’s hear it for Rfx6!

There’s a summary of the study here:

Gene Critical to the Development of Insulin-Producing Cells Identified

If the summary leaves you wanting more information about the study, you can also find the complete article on the study in the journal Nature:

Rfx6 directs islet formation and insulin production in mice and humans

although it appears that you’ll have to pay Nature for your Rfx6 news fix.

I think we finished last in all three of the races. Dennis (the Captain) didn’t seem too concerned about how we did though. He said he mostly enjoyed just getting out on the water and sailing. I like that attitude and I couldn’t agree more.

Here are some photos from the day:

This was the third time I’ve been out to spend a day sailing and the third time I’ve watched my blood sugar go from normal to high during the first few hours of sailing even though I’ve eaten nothing during the entire outing. I’m not sitting idle in the cockpit either. It’s not aerobic exercise for sure, but believe me, there’s plenty to keep you active. There’s attaching the mainsail and foresail and running and affixing lines before you leave the marina. After you’re on the water, there’s raising the sails which, believe or not, is hard work. Those sails, even for this 28-foot boat, are pretty big and heavy. I now know why sailboats any larger than 25 feet or so come with winches to help you raise sails.

The first two times out sailing maybe I was distracted by the novelty of going sailing. This time however, it had to be something else causing my blood sugars to drift high because I was very careful about my blood sugar levels leading up to the sailing yesterday and I didn’t eat anything during the race. When blood sugars rise without being influenced by the intake of food, that sounds like an incorrect basal rate to me. Between now and the next day of sailing, I’m going to double-check my basal rates.

From the story:

A University of Utah study found when parents become less involved in their teens’ care of type 1 diabetes and when their relationship quality drops, teens are less likely to manage the disease. … When the relationship improves and when parents, say, monitor their children’s insulin levels, the teens do a better job of watching their diet, exercising and testing their blood-sugar levels.

The study authors suggest parents continue to be involved in their child’s diabetes management even as the child reaches an age when he or she is increasingly independent. By the age of 13, children can physically do the work of managing diabetes, but “They’re still making gains in cognitive development until late adolescence, ” says the study’s author. They need parental guidance while they fully develop problem-solving and reasoning skills.

The story appeared in the Salt Lake Tribune here:

Diabetic teens do listen

You can also find stories about this study in these places:

• Parents keep diabetic teens on track
• Parents Keep Diabetic Teens on Track
• Parents key managing diabetes in teens

This story really made me think back to my own teenage years. I was diagnosed with type 1 at the age of 13 and I struggled with it throughout my teens and not really fully accepting that I had diabetes until I was in my twenties. I wonder what this study would say about the teenager who wants nothing more than for the whole diabetes thing to just go away?

My normal routine in the morning includes taking a blood glucose reading followed shortly by breakfast. When I take that blood glucose reading, I mark (“tag” in the terminology of the glucose meter feature of the Personal Diabetes Manager device that I use to control the activities of my insulin pump) the reading as “Fasting” and “Pre-meal.” This morning, however, with my cold, I decided I needed an additional marker: “Sick day.”

Except it wouldn’t let me do it. I had already set the “Fasting” and “Pre-meal” tags and it wouldn’t let me do a third one. If I cleared “Fasting” or “Pre-meal”, it would then let me set the “Sick day” tag. So, I guess the manufacturer decided for me that I would never need more than two tags. They were almost right because it has taken me two years to notice this limitation. But, in the business of user interfaces, making decisions for the user that are “almost right” is wrong.

On a related subject, when I enter a glucose reading manually, I can’t add tags to the reading at all. I prefer my Breeze2 and Contour meters by Bayer Healthcare so I often enter readings manually and all those readings are tag-free. It’s not that tag-free readings are a big problem for me; the real problem is it seems like an arbitrary and unnecessary limitation.

That means I’ve been thinking a lot about two things this week: the weather and staying dry.

Weather-wise, Saturday’s forecast for the Salt Lake City area says it’s going to be partly sunny with a high of 54 degrees. Sounds dry. Sounds like a great day to be outside, right? Well, the weather forecast has changed dramatically each day I’ve checked it since last Friday, so who knows what it’s really going to be like on Saturday. It’s completely out of my control so there’s really little sense in worrying about it. The weather is what it is. End of story.

Staying dry, on the other hand, is something I can worry about and have some control over. I’m not talking about keeping myself dry either. I’m talking about the “stuff” I haul around with me all the time. At various times I’ve jokingly referred to this “stuff” as my “peripherals,” my “vital external organs,” my “diabetes IV”, my “artificial pancreas wannabes”, but whatever the name, it’s the equipment I carry with me for caring for diabetes and, well, to be perfectly honest, to keep me alive. It’s equipment like my blood glucose monitor, continuous glucose monitor, and insulin pump. When the manufacturer of this stuff says it needs to stay dry, I pay attention.

My plan to keep this stuff dry is to package it all individually in dry bags like this one:

Since they’re clear, I should be able to operate the electronics (mostly) without opening the bag and risking exposure to water. These units also have the advantage of coming with a lanyard so I can secure the bag to me, or if that’s not convenient, to the boat. That will reduce the likelihood of the other kind of “oops” that would turn a pleasant day of sailing into an expensive disaster, if not a crisis. That is, in a moment of pure clumsiness, dropping one of these devices into the lake.

We’ll see how well this works. More on the subject of sailing and staying dry next week. I promise there will be photos too.