Why is there not more research into possible cures?

[MancVandaL]

Hi. I was just wondering why, with Diabetes on the rise, is more money not put into researching possible cures (if there is one). I've read some articles about some things that show some hope for us, but they all seem to be under funded. Surely it would make better monetary sense to find a cure for this as the number of use is rising and all need medical help (tabs and insulin etc.)

Do you know of any research that looks promising?

Cheers.

 

[Mark T]

To first make a cure, you have to understand the cause...

Type 2 seems to have a myriad of causes (and not necessarily the ones they usually go on about) that they haven't figured out yet.

Even Type 1, they might understand what goes wrong (in most, but not all cases) - but they certainly don't seem to understand why it happens.

 

[Zuckerkranke]

And combat the ignorance too. I'm fed up with hearing, Oh, it's self inflicted. It's lifestyle."😡

 

[HOBIE]

Hi Mancvandal, a lot of us have just being doing a fundraising at "TESCO" & raised a lot of pennies. We will have to keep at it & raise some more 🙂

 

[MancVandaL]

Don't get me wrong, I know there are people out there doing their bit to raise money for research, but I referring to the government and their input. It just seems strange that with the increase in people being diagnosed, not to mention the millions world wide that already are Diabetic, that more isn't being done to find a cure.

Maybe their is and I just don't know about it. I'm new to the world of Diabetes so not clued up, hence me asking.

 

[trophywench]

The short answer to that one Marc is that it won't produce any saving at all in the short term and that IS actually what the Government need to do with absolutely everything - a couple of years back I was told by the head of the 'Quality of Care' people locally that the NHS could have ANYTHING they wanted - except they had to make a saving elsewhere so it could be paid for.

That's almost always been the case and definitely still is.

Year on year they expect improvements in every service, yet cut the funding. eg B'ham City Council's Child Protection problems when that department currently only has 66% of the staff they actually need - and 33% of those employed are temporary staff. And the Council has to save millions and millions of ??? ........

Plus as Zuckerkranke says , almost everyone has been sucked into this 'It's their own fault' syndrome - so why should ordinary people who keep themselves fit and not eat junk food, be interested in funding research when they are so convinced being obese etc is the ONLY cause of diabetes. Of course 'Your genes are probably what cause people to have T2' isn't exactly such a hard-hitting headline as 'Mega obese T2 people in Diabetes Complications wards cost the NHS ???billions'. They completely forget that T1's get complications too, but then that's not caused by our lifestyles, so it's OK having to spend some billions to treat us .......

Aaaarrgghh. Makes me want to scream very loudly !!!

 

[DeusXM]

Hi Mancvandal, a lot of us have just being doing a fundraising at "TESCO" & raised a lot of pennies. We will have to keep at it & raise some more 🙂

Don't want to disappoint you Hobie but that money isn't going towards a cure.

Diabetes UK have little interest in funding cure research - if you look at their accounts statement, a cure is explicitly labelled as being bottom of their priorities. Diabetes UK last year spent more on research trying to work out if teenagers had fewer hypos whether or not they might have better awareness, than they did on actual cure research.

There is serious cure research currently going on (University of Maryland trials of exendin-4 with lysofilene, Dr Faustmann's BCG work) but because these are international projects, Diabetes UK won't find them as they'd rather prioritise WHERE the cure comes from rather than HOW QUICKLY they can find one.

Plus, somehow they've got to get back that ?2.5m they spent on putting adverts in every Tube carriage. That'll need paying off first long before they can even think of chucking a few thousand at a cure.

Seriously, D-UK's ad budget is about twice as large as their current cure research spending. It's insane.