Hi Sammy

I am really sorry to hear that you lost your nanna. It is always very sad when you lose someone you love and as your nanna had diabetes too I understand that it can make diabetes seem pretty scary.

As you know each year school and organisations raise money for scientists and researchers looking at ways to improve diabetes care, as well as trying to find a cure. So at any one time, thousands of research projects in diabetes are being carried out around the world. Lots of exciting stuff is happening because of this and this means cool changes to diabetes care.

Its like if your nanna was diagnosed when she was a child, she would have seen some big changes too. Back then, you used to have to measure your blood glucose levels by dipping a stick into your urine! It took heaps longer and it wasn’t as spot on as checking your blood with a finger prick, so it must have been pretty maddening too! It also meant that people had high blood glucose a lot more often and that can make you more at risk of getting sick.

Thanks to all of the research in diabetes, we now know that keeping your blood glucose levels mostly within the normal range, really helps to keep you well. Research into new types of insulin’s, ways to give insulin and test BGLs have also helped to make living with diabetes a little easier than it used to be. Some of the biggest research is in stem cells, these are special types of cells that could be used to replace the cells of the pancreas of people with diabetes. This is very exciting, but like all of the other research, it needs more work to make it easier and make sure it's safe. Because scientists need to test and retest research, it's hard to know how long it will take. The best thing that you can do is to try and look after your diabetes.  That way, you can keep yourself well to do all the stuff you want and be healthy to use any discoveries that the scientists make.

Answered by Health Professionals:

Lucy Cutler

Research Psychologist

The Children’s Hospital at Westmead