"My mom took me to one doctor who said, 'Your kid has got the flu. Come back in one week,'" he said.

"They said, 'Ma'am, we've got good news, and we've got bad news. The good news is your son's gonna live for now. The bad news is, he's got diabetes. He's got to take shots of insulin, and most likely he'll be dead by 25. If not, he'll either be blind or have renal failure,'" he said.

As he grew up in Tallahassee, Florida, Southerland was determined not to let this death sentence stop him. At 6, he was already managing his Type 1 diabetes on his own.

"For me, it was all I ever knew. I knew I had to breathe, I knew I had to eat and I knew I had to check my blood sugar and give myself insulin shots."

His parents stored only healthy food in the house to keep him from making bad choices. But at 12, Southerland disobeyed the rules and ate a candy bar. That decision would change his life.

"I figured OK, I don't want to wait two hours for my insulin to kick in. I do want to eat these candy bars. How can I do it?" he recalled.

So he hopped on his bike and rode through the neighborhood until his legs got tired.

"That was my journey to start riding," he said. "The bike for me was freedom."

The more he exercised, the less insulin he needed, and the easier it was to manage the disease.

"The bike gave me the discipline and motivation I needed to control my diabetes," he added.

The first sporting goal of the organization was to have a team of athletes compete in the Race Across America, a 3,000-mile bike trek through 12 states.

"We lost the race by three minutes," Southerland said. "So we came back the next year a little smarter in how we manage diabetes, a little more experienced in the race, and we set a world record of 5 days, 15 hours and 43 minutes."

To ensure safety, the organization provides a medical team to support riders during a race. Cyclists undergo a stringent testing regime in the three hours leading up to a race. They also use continuous glucose monitoring, which will sound an alarm if their levels get too high or too low.

In 2008, Southerland created a professional team of diabetic cyclists.

"I was supposed to be dead when we started Team Type 1 as a professional cycling team," he said.

But he was far from it. Southerland competed as a professional cyclist for two years until some injuries took him out of the sport.

Now 35, Southerland's goal is to field the first all-diabetic team in the Tour de France by 2021.

"I believe sport can be the unifying point for people with diabetes," he said.

Southerland's other passion is helping diabetic kids in Rwanda get much-needed medical supplies.

"I nearly put our company out of business in 2010 ... because I bought 400 blood glucose monitors, and I took about 40,000 test strips in bike boxes to the Tour of Rwanda," he said.

"We gave them out to the kids there. Their parents were all in tears because their kids have this tool, which is gonna help them live," he added. "It ripped my heart out."

Every year since then, the organization has continued to send supplies to Rwanda.

"I want every kid with diabetes to know that they are the hero. Every person with diabetes to know that their dreams can come true."

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Cyclist turns a death sentence into a race against diabetes - CNN

BBC News

Smartphone 'orders' body to treat diabetes BBC News Scientists have used a smartphone to control the activity of the living cells inside an animal. The fusion of biology and technology was used to control blood sugar levels in mice with diabetes. The idea, described in Science Translational Medicine ... We Now Have an App That Can Activate Cells That Manage DiabetesFuturism Smartphone App Enables Wireless Control of Diabetes | GENGenetic Engineering & Biotechnology News Forget shots diabetes smartphone app tells cells when to produce ...New Atlas Seeker -Science Daily -IEEE Spectrum all 17 news articles »

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Smartphone 'orders' body to treat diabetes - BBC News

By Serena Gordon

HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, April 27, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Previous research has linked type 2 diabetes and memory loss. Now, new research may be closing in on some of the reasons why.

The study found that people with type 2 diabetes -- particularly those who are overweight or obese -- have thinner gray matter in several areas of the brain.

These brain regions are related to memory, executive function, movement generation and visual information processing, said the study's senior author, Dr. In Kyoon Lyoo. He's director of the Ewha University Brain Institute in Seoul, South Korea.

"Obesity leads to increased risk of type 2 diabetes, metabolic dysfunction and is also associated with brain alterations independently," Lyoo said. "We aimed to investigate whether overweight/obesity influenced brain structure and cognitive function in individuals with early stage of type 2 diabetes."

The study included: 50 overweight or obese people with type 2 diabetes; 50 normal-weight people with type 2 diabetes, and 50 normal-weight people without diabetes.

The Korean study volunteers were between 30 and 60 years old. Those with diabetes had it for five years or less, and they were attempting lifestyle modifications and/or taking oral medication to lower blood sugar levels. No one was taking insulin.

The normal-weight group with type 2 diabetes had slightly better blood sugar control -- a hemoglobin A1C level of 7 percent. The overweight folks with type 2 diabetes had hemoglobin A1C levels of 7.3 percent.

Hemoglobin A1C is a two- to three- month estimate of average blood sugar levels. The American Diabetes Association generally recommends an A1C of 7 percent or less.

All study participants underwent MRI brain scans and tests to measure memory and thinking skills.

"Cortical thickness was decreased in several regions of the diabetic brains. Further thinning of the temporal lobes found in overweight/obese individuals with type 2 diabetes suggests that these regions are specifically vulnerable to combined effects of obesity and type 2 diabetes," Lyoo said.

He said this study alone cannot tease out whether the effect is from excess weight or diabetes or both. But the study did find that the longer someone had diabetes, the more likely they were to have brain changes.

Lyoo said factors such as insulin resistance, inflammation and poor blood sugar management might bring about the changes.

Memory and thinking skills were decreased in people with diabetes -- regardless of weight -- compared to the normal-weight people without type 2 diabetes, the study found.

Because the study only included an Asian population, Lyoo said it isn't clear if these effects would apply to other populations, such as Americans. He also said it isn't known if these effects occur in people with type 1 diabetes, the less common form of diabetes.

Dr. Sami Saba is an attending physician in neuromuscular medicine and electromyography at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.

"The regions most affected were the temporal lobes, which are also most prominently affected in people with Alzheimer's," he said of the research.

"While this was not proven on this study, it does suggest that those with diabetes who are also overweight are at higher risk for developing Alzheimer's-type cognitive impairment than those with diabetes who are not overweight," Saba said.

But, he also noted that a major limitation of this study was the lack of overweight/obese people without diabetes to serve as a comparison group.

The take-home message, said Saba, is that weight control is an "important factor in preserving brain health in these patients." He said it's one more reason to work to prevent weight gain.

Lyoo said good blood-sugar management would probably help slow down or prevent these diabetes- or obesity-related brain changes.

Dr. William Cefalu is the chief scientific, medical and mission officer for the American Diabetes Association.

"The presence of overweight and obesity has been shown in other studies to be associated with early structural changes in the brain, and may contribute to cognitive issues," he said.

But, he said that diabetes may also play a role. Both Lyoo and Cefalu said that more research is needed to figure out which factor is at the root of these changes.

The study was released April 27 in the journal Diabetologia.

WebMD News from HealthDay

SOURCES: In Kyoon Lyoo, M.D., Ph.D., director, Ewha University Brain Institute, Seoul, South Korea; Sami Saba, M.D., attending physician in neuromuscular medicine and electromyography, department of neurology, Lenox Hill Hospital, New York City; William Cefalu, M.D., chief scientific, medical and mission officer, American Diabetes Association; April 27, 2017, Diabetologia

Link:
Type 2 Diabetes May Be Bad for Brain Health - WebMD

Many parents say that they will do anything for their children, but for Doug Wright, that meant going to the top of the world and enduring freezing temperatures.

The 58-year-old stay-at-home dad from Milton wanted to do something to raise awareness for Type 1 diabetes, a disease his 8-year-old son Jake lives with.

Earlier this month, Wright ran a half-marathon in the North Pole. He didnt see Santas Workshop or any polar bears, but Wright raised more than $4,500 for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

Going to the North Pole for me was drawing that extreme, Wright said. People ask, Why are you doing that? and I say, Well, because my kid has Type 1 diabetes and I think thats pretty freakin extreme. So, Im going to do what I can to support him.

With nine children coming before Jake, Wright and his wife thought they had seen everything. They knew how to handle all types of illnesses and injuries any kid might get.

Jake started getting sick in Febuary 2016. He was vomiting often, he didnt want to eat and he wasnt getting better.

Wright took his boy to the nearest hospital and after a nurse and doctor saw him they told Wright that his youngest son was in distress and that they couldnt help him. Wright scooped Jake off the table and took him to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Scottish Rite Hospital where he got the proper care he needed.

To have that facility here is a blessing to those who live in this area, Wright said. I think if I had to drive another 20 minutes, we wouldve lost Jake. By the time we got there, he was incoherent.

While medical professionals were working on Jake, a doctor stepped away from the table to ask Wright if there was a history of diabetes in the family. Wright said, No. Not at all. Nothing.

Jake had tubes in his arms, his clothes were ripped off, and doctors were trying everything. Finally, a doctor turned to Wright and told him they were going to treat Jake as if he had Type 1 diabetes. And it worked. Jake was stabilized and began getting better.

The doctor started talking about a lot of things, but all I heard him say was that my son was going to live, Wright said. Thats all I wanted to know.

Jake nearly died from diabetic ketoacidosis and was eventually diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. Then, the in-home care started.

With todays technology, Jake and his family can constantly monitor his blood glucose levels on his iPhone with the use of a device called a Dexcom, an FDA approved device that can be attached to a diabetics body and will send readings using Bluetooth.

Shortly after discovering Jake had diabetes, Wright and his wife began researching the disease and looking at organizations who were raising money for research and awareness. The one they liked the most was JDRF, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

Theres no hidden dream or agenda with them, Wright said. They do what they can to help (diabetics) live a normal life. Theres an understanding that, they may never find a cure, but theyre going to make sure (diabetics) wake up in the morning and (live) like the rest of us do.

Doug Wright "dabs" for his son in the North Pole. Submitted

Wright eventually got the feeling that he wanted to do something extreme to show his son he had his back with his extreme disease.

Scrolling through Facebook one day, he saw an ad and article on the North Pole Marathon. Wright said he hadnt ran a race since 1996, but that didnt stop him his mind was made up and he began training.

Wright prepped his body and arrived in the North Pole on April 9 to run a half-marathon. He wore many layers for the race that included more than 50 people from 24 countries. The temperatures dipped down to 40 degrees below zero.

Ten miles into the race, cramps kicked in and Wright found himself on his back in the snow. He was punching the ground in a fit of rage. Eventually, two other runners came along and helped him stretch. Wright was good to go and completed six more miles.

The track of the marathon includes a tent where runners can go in, hydrate, change clothes and warm up. Wright says he changed clothes three times because wearing sweaty clothes can result in hypothermia and he was out on the ice for eight hours. He thinks he did well for someone who hadnt ran a race in 21 years.

And Wright did raise some money for JDRF too. As of April 28, he had raised $4,528.44. Folks who wish to donate to the cause can visit thedonation page.

You dont go to the North Pole to set land-speed records, Wright said. You go there for the experience and a cause. When I heard about the North Pole marathon, I talked to my wife and said, You know, we talk about going to the ends of the Earth for our children. How about we do it?.

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Milton father runs North Pole half-marathon for diabetic son - Atlanta Journal Constitution