Speaker 1: Joining us now to celebrate a really, really significant milestone
Speaker 1: is a woman who has not only been living with
Speaker 1: type one diabetes for fifty years, which we're going to
Speaker 1: get to why that is so absolutely incredible in just
Speaker 1: a moment, but I would go so far as to say,
Speaker 1: because Dana Davis got type one diabetes as a child,
Speaker 1: the entire city of Denver and the surrounding areas for
Speaker 1: miles and miles have benefited through the Barbara Davis Center,
Speaker 1: through the Children's Diabetes Foundation, and all of the work
Speaker 1: that they've done to get us from fifty years ago
Speaker 1: when finding out you a type one diabetes probably meant
Speaker 1: a shorter lifespan to last Friday where at the Barbara
Speaker 1: Davis Center or Children's Diabetes Foundation, not know where the
Speaker 1: actual metal ceremony took place, they actually honored people who
Speaker 1: had been living with type one diabetes for at least
Speaker 1: fifty years, which is insane. And now Dana Davis, the
Speaker 1: executive director, joins me to talk about it. It wasn't
Speaker 1: just you, though, Dana, but you did get your medal
Speaker 1: on Friday.
Speaker 2: Hi, thank you so much for having me here. I
Speaker 2: did get my medal and it was super exciting and
Speaker 2: thrilling to get it because when I was diagnosed, just
Speaker 2: like so many of the other people that were there
Speaker 2: with me, we were told that we'd probably lived thirty
Speaker 2: or forty years. A lot of people were discouraged from
Speaker 2: having kids. Life was just so different, and we celebrated
Speaker 2: this day. There was eighty six of us there, but
Speaker 2: there are actually four over four hundred and sixty patients
Speaker 2: at the Barbara Davis Center living and thriving with type
Speaker 2: one for more than fifty years, some up to seventy
Speaker 2: five years, which is unbelievable and incredible.
Speaker 1: So let's talk about Dana and I were talking off
Speaker 1: the air before we just started this segment, and you
Speaker 1: said something that I thought was very interesting. You said,
Speaker 1: for you, you almost got more out of Friday's medal
Speaker 1: ceremony than some of the kids because the way type
Speaker 1: one diabetes impacts their lives is so different now then
Speaker 1: the way your life as a child was impacted, just
Speaker 1: because of the advancements that have been made. So isn't
Speaker 1: that a wonderful bit of progress to talk about.
Speaker 2: There's a huge bit of progress. I mean, there is
Speaker 2: the way technology has sped up, how diabetes is treated. Now,
Speaker 2: we now have continuous glucose monitors where we know what
Speaker 2: our but sugar is every five minutes. Back then, we
Speaker 2: didn't even have blood testing. We had urine testing. It
Speaker 2: was totally inaccurate. We have insulm pumps. Now. When I
Speaker 2: was diagnosed, you were given one shot in the morning.
Speaker 2: Park was the first one. I was allergic to it.
Speaker 2: The next day I went back and they gave me beef.
Speaker 2: It was cloudy. You could see stuff floating.
Speaker 1: Now, you know, we.
Speaker 2: Had to boil needles and now we have I mean,
Speaker 2: insulm pumps and we have really insolence and disposable needles.
Speaker 2: And it's a different world. And it was kind of
Speaker 2: nice to be around a bunch of people that grew
Speaker 2: up with Type one the same way I did, because
Speaker 2: you know, it's so hard to remember that fifty years
Speaker 2: ago how far we've come, which only means I really
Speaker 2: believe the next fifty years is going to happen in
Speaker 2: twenty five, like I believe we will have some form
Speaker 2: of a cure, whatever that will look like in the
Speaker 2: next twenty five years.
Speaker 1: Oh, I just read a story recently about a crisper
Speaker 1: gene treatment that is yeah, They're literally modifying the genetic
Speaker 1: code for people who have type one diabetes and it
Speaker 1: turns on their spleen and all of a sudden they
Speaker 1: are able to completely eliminate their dependence on influence. I
Speaker 1: can't even imagine. And this has only been done a
Speaker 1: few times. We're not talking about a widespread study yet,
Speaker 1: So I don't want people to think it's going to
Speaker 1: be here tomorrow, right, I want to manage expectations a
Speaker 1: little bit. Absolutely, But that's incredible. That's a that we
Speaker 1: are so close to a cure for type one diabetes.
Speaker 1: And let's be real, folks, fifty years ago was not
Speaker 1: eighteen ninety five with the cloudy influence. That was nineteen
Speaker 1: seventy five. Okay, so this is not the Dark Ages,
Speaker 1: but that's how much in the Dark Ages treatment for
Speaker 1: type one diabetes was back then. So I mean data.
Speaker 2: Exactly, go go ahead, No, sorry, I was just going
Speaker 2: to say things with the crisper and stuff is important
Speaker 2: to look at and know because one of the things
Speaker 2: you want to make sure is that the cure isn't
Speaker 2: worse than the actual disease. So sometimes still, you know,
Speaker 2: there's a lot of anti rejection drugs involved with things
Speaker 2: that are types of cures, right, says, So you want
Speaker 2: to make sure you know, like those are one thing
Speaker 2: that's being focused on. Another thing is getting tested. If
Speaker 2: you have the markers, you have four markers, your A
Speaker 2: one C starts to raise. You can come and get
Speaker 2: an infusion. That's why we're trying to encourage people to
Speaker 2: get tested. You can get an infusion for two weeks
Speaker 2: and it could push off the onset of type one
Speaker 2: diabetes for many years. So when I say cure, I
Speaker 2: mean it can look like it's more than just one thing, right.
Speaker 2: A cure can be multiple things, and that's what we're
Speaker 2: so excited about.
Speaker 1: Well, go into that just a little bit. What you
Speaker 1: just mentioned. What are the four markers? What what? What
Speaker 1: if they want to look for them?
Speaker 2: And I should know what they are and I do not,
Speaker 2: but I shall learn it for the next time. But
Speaker 2: I know there are four markers. So at the Barbara
Speaker 2: Davis Center, we do free testing so people can come,
Speaker 2: they can get tested, they can see if they have
Speaker 2: the markers for type one diabetes along with to see
Speaker 2: if they have celiac and we then can follow you
Speaker 2: and know if you have the markers. They have a
Speaker 2: whole process they go through and Sonofi is a company
Speaker 2: that has created this drug called tezild t Zield is
Speaker 2: something that we have an infusion center at the barbar
Speaker 2: Davia Center and we can infuse you. It's thirty minutes
Speaker 2: a day. I mean, you have to go through it.
Speaker 2: I'm making it sound so much easier than it is, right, Yeah,
Speaker 2: but you know it's thirty minutes a day for two weeks.
Speaker 2: But in the past, it used to be people were like, well,
Speaker 2: why would I get tested? There's nothing you can do
Speaker 2: right right now, Families, if you have it in your
Speaker 2: history and you can get tested and you can do
Speaker 2: something to prolong the onset, I mean, that's incredible and
Speaker 2: eventually continue to prolong it, maybe as another form of
Speaker 2: a cure. Saying say, we've never said a cure, like
Speaker 2: the Children's Diabetes Foundation, the Barber Data Center. We've never
Speaker 2: been like, we have a cure. We've been very careful
Speaker 2: and we really feel what it is in our grasp
Speaker 2: within the next you know, twenty two decades, which I
Speaker 2: think is a huge deal.
Speaker 1: Oh No, I think it's I think it's I keep
Speaker 1: saying all of this stuff that's happening right now with
Speaker 1: medicine and the way they're using AI to sort of
Speaker 1: move things along at a rate that is it's just
Speaker 1: incomprehensible in terms of the ability to speed the process along.
Speaker 1: I'm with you. I feel very optimistic that we're going
Speaker 1: to find a way to help people live a perfectly
Speaker 1: normal life without necessarily worrying about their type one diabetes
Speaker 1: very soon.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, kids can live. I mean, somebody who gets it
Speaker 2: when they're five, when they're one, they can live until
Speaker 2: they're nineties, happy and healthy, and that's that's like the
Speaker 2: greatest gift ever.
Speaker 1: Right Well, Dana, congratulations to you and all of those
Speaker 1: over fifty year folks who are living and thriving with
Speaker 1: type one diabetes. I'm glad you had that experience where
Speaker 1: you all got to get together. And I'm guessing some
Speaker 1: war stories were traded.
Speaker 2: Back in our day. This is what we had to do.
Speaker 1: With the kids that are there now, with their continuous
Speaker 1: glucose monitors and their you know, influin pumps, they can't
Speaker 1: even imagine, they can't fathom it. It's great to though, Dana.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much. I really appreciate you for having me.
Speaker 1: Oh that's Dana Davis. It's my pleasure. We'll talk again soon. Dana,
Speaker 1: have a great day.