DIABETES & SANTA'S ADVENTURES

The book, Santa's Adventures, was published to raise funds and awareness about  the Type 1 diabetes cure from Harvard researcher Denise Faustman's lab at  Massachusetts General Hospital. 

After an accidental cure of Type 1 diabetic mice, and successful repeats of the experiment at four US  and one Asian lab, the FDA approved human trials. The first, to insure safety, has been completed successfully, not only proving the safety of the drug, bacillus calmette-guerin (BCG), but also, unexpectedly, provided several four week cures, during which time those patients made and lived on their own insulin.  Of course, longer term cures are hoped for with the phase 2 and phase 3 trials, which will figure out proper dosages and reasons for variations in dosages. Funds have been raised to begin the Phase 2 trial, but the three year trial will need seventeen million dollars more to complete. 

Money for this research has been difficult to raise because the cause of type 1 diabetes, an attack by the immune system on a child's insulin-producing "beta cells," has always been thought to be a one time event with a permanent result.  It has now been discovered, however, that the diabetic's body keeps making and his/her immune system keeps killing the "beta cells."  And the Faustman Lab, through years of testing, was able to identify the particular immune cell that's doing this killing, and through more years of experimenting, found a generic drug, bacillus calmette-guerin, that was able to kill just that immune cell without harming the rest of the immune system. 

I first heard about this research on the "Science Friday" program on public radio while traveling home from work in the early 1990's.  That's how long it has taken to repeat these experiments and get FDA approval for the human clinical trials!  So please consider reading more about this on the Lab web site: www.faustmanLab.org

Because my fundraising book is short and inexpensive, please consider buying more  than one copy for those last minute gifts for teachers, child's coach, your hairdresser, etc.  It may be ordered from Barnes & Noble or Amazon.com by clicking on the Order spot at the top of this page. You may also order by calling your local Barnes & Noble store and picking up the book there, thus saving shipping costs.

Visit my book's blog for more personal information: 

http://diabetessantablog.authorsxpress.com

A second book, Santa's Adventures II, will be available from the same merchants in December.  Click on the "Book" tab at the top of this page to find more about both books.

 
  FOR  INFORMATION  about  the  FAUSTMAN  RESEARCH  FOR A  CURE  of  TYPE  ONE  DIABETES, Click Here 

  FOR  FUND  RAISING,
* Types of functions to consider :  Walk,  Run,  Bike Ride, Bake Sale, Used Book Sale, Balloon Rides,
Sport Competition:  Golf,  Race
(Pets or People)
* To list your function's Date, Place, and Time, or to view list, Click Here 

 TO  DONATE, Click Here

 To donate by check, make it out to:  "Massachusetts General Hospital - Faustman Research."

 Mail it to: