Showdown with Diabetes

Calling for a fundamental shift in the way diabetes is viewed, Butterfield, founder and director of the Insulin-Free World Federation, combines the story of her own harrowing personal battle with a critical look at the limitations of standard approaches and a review of the latest advances. Diagnosed in 1970 when she was only 10, she began to experience secondary complications when she was in her early 20s, despite her best efforts at managing her diabetes. The progression was steady: retinopathy, then neuropathy, which led to major problems in walking, and then kidney disease. In 1993, with her condition worsening, she underwent a kidney-pancreas transplant in hopes that the new pancreas would produce insulin. Although the procedure has a high success rate, her body rejected the new organs. A year later, however, a retransplant was successful, and since then Butterfield has been living a virtually normal existence, taking only small daily doses of immunosuppressives. Her mission now, spelled out in part two, is to disseminate information about therapeutic options and about the research into transplanting insulin-producing pancreatic islet cells that may one day provide a cure for diabetes. With diabetes treatments accounting for one in four Medicare dollars, her message is one for policy makers as well as for diabetics. (Aug.)