About 3 million Americans today have type 1 diabetes. Forty children will be diagnosed with it today, amounting up to over 15,000 children a year. Although insulin injections allow these children to live, theirs is a life constantly hounded by daily difficulties, anxieties, and fear, and it never goes away.
For years now, TEDDY (The Environmental Determinants of Diabetes in the Young) has been on the lookout for environmental causes of type 1 diabetes, wherein the beta cells within a child’s pancreas are destroyed by the body’s immune cells. The body therefore becomes unable to create its own insulin, requiring several insulin injections or a pump throughout the day in order to live, never mind be healthy. Children who have not learned their first household responsibilities like making their own bed must themselves or assisted by their parents prick their fingers to test their blood sugar six or more times in one day. Their diets must be monitored as must be their daily physical activity, stress levels, illnesses and infections, medications, fatigue, and hormonal changes, and they must somehow attempt to live semi-normal lives.
The People Behind TEDDY
TEDDY is an international organization consisting of six groups of research doctors from across the globe pooling knowledge, resources, and biological samples with the scientific community in order to help the children in question and those yet to come. Their goal is to identify environmental factors that may trigger diabetes in genetically susceptible children
Entirely for free, TEDDY keeps track of a child’s diet, illnesses, allergies, and other experiences. (They even offer small monetary compensation and free coupons.) Every three months for four years, TEDDY conducts a small blood draw; monthly stool samples, water samples, 3-day food diaries, and toenail clippings also help TEDDY’s research. After these four years, the child will be seen by a doctor every six months until he or she reaches the age 15. The child’s blood is tested for a reaction against the beta cells (autoantibodies); the presence of one or more of these autoantibodies indicates that the beta cells might be destroyed by the attacking immune cells, leading eventually to diabetes.
TEDDY emphasizes that not all children with these autoantibodies get diabetes. Rather, TEDDY is conducting long-term, ongoing, and groundbreaking research in which children at risk for diabetes can take part in order to one day cure or alleviate the disease for others. The ultimate goal is to identify the environmental triggers of type 1 diabetes in order to develop new strategies to prevent, delay, or reverse the illness.
Clinical Centers for TEDDY
If your child has higher risk genes to develop type 1 diabetes in the future, consider visiting the clinical centers in North America (Denver, Colorado; Atlanta and Augusta, Georgia; Gainesville, Florida; and Seattle, Washington) and or Europe (multiple locations within Germany, Sweden, and Finland).
See the TEDDY website for details. http://teddy.epi.usf.edu/index.htm
See also: kids diabetic bracelets
Bio: Maria Rainier is a freelance writer and blog junkie. She is currently a resident blogger at First in Education performing research surrounding online universities and their various program offerings. In her spare time, she enjoys square-foot gardening, swimming, and avoiding her laptop.
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