Broadcast Retirement Network’s Jeffrey Snyder discusses the treatments for Type 1 diabetes with University Hospitals’ Betul Hatipoglu, MD.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Dr. Hatipoglu, great to see you. Thanks for joining us on the program this morning. It’s a pleasure, thank you for having me.
Yeah, it’s great. And we’re gonna talk about some of your, the latest research around diabetes. And I wanna maybe do a level set in terms of type 1 diabetes.
Do you have an idea about the percentage of our population in the United States in particular that may be impacted by this dreadful disease?
Betul Hatipoglu, MD, University Hospitals
Yes, of course. In the United States, majority of our patients suffers type 2 diabetes. On the other hand, type 1 is around 2.1 million individuals, perhaps 5% of the diabetic population.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
I mean, that seems to me like a sizable population. And my understanding is, doctor, it’s growing for a number of reasons, is that correct?
Betul Hatipoglu, MD, University Hospitals
Yes, for many different reasons, like you mentioned, we are seeing every year an increase in the numbers of this disease. And interesting, fascinating, or horrifying, whatever way you can look at it, piece to it is it’s increasing in children and in adults.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
What would be, if I haven’t seen my practitioner in a while, my primary care physician, what would be some of the symptoms that I might experience if I’m inflected with type 1 diabetes?
Betul Hatipoglu, MD, University Hospitals
It’s an excellent question. It’s usually not subtle. Type 1 diabetes is a dramatic presence in your life.
You will start feeling thirsty all the time, start losing weight, fatigued. You might just feel like you are having a flu, nausea, urinating, peeing a lot. You might need to stop, for example, all the time when you’re trying to drive to work or a longer trip that’s unusual.
In some cases, people are also very hungry. So you’re hungry, you’re eating, you’re thirsty, you’re drinking, and you’re constantly losing weight and you are urinating a lot. So those are usually the dramatic presentation.
And if you don’t catch it on time, it ends up being confusion and coma even.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Yeah, really painful in some way, painful symptoms of the disease. Now, you and the team have been doing a lot of research and I’ll ask you, I wanna talk about that. In terms of type 1 diabetes, is it possible to cure the disease based on your research, doctor?
Betul Hatipoglu, MD, University Hospitals
Yes, so depending on how you define the cure, but of course, we today have hope for those patients and can offer treatments that one could call it cure for a subset of individuals. Maybe it’s not for everybody, but for a group within the type 1, people living with type 1, we do have an option today available in this country to offer. And I’m looking to the future and in the next five to 10 years, I see even perhaps better ways for these patients.
There is hope for cure and we do have something to offer right now.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
If you wouldn’t mind, I’m sorry to interrupt you. What might that cure look like? I know you don’t have to give away any state secrets, but just an idea, we’ve been seeing a lot of, I watch TV, we were talking earlier about watching the Pitt TV show, but in all seriousness, we see a lot of ads on TV about GLP-1s.
Is the cure different than that particular subset of medications?
Betul Hatipoglu, MD, University Hospitals
Yes, absolutely. So we are talking about type 1 diabetes, which is very different than type 2 diabetes. Just to put a parenthesis here for the audience that might be listening to us, type 2 diabetes is one that you could put into remission, almost like a cure.
You can indeed, could have a window of opportunity with this illness where you can push it back from your life and weight loss, a good nurturing your body with Mediterranean-like diet or vegetarian diet or whatever diet that you might choose to, exercising, sleeping, stress management, and medications like GLP-1 could be the quote unquote cure for type 2 diabetes. When it comes to type 1, you need to put back the cells that are making, producing insulin to these individuals. So that’s not gonna happen with a medication like a GLP-1.
What I’m hinting toward is replacing those cells with the least amount of harm to the body of the individuals and I see that coming in the next 10 years.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
So with, you know, I’m a lay person, so I don’t have your expertise. Is it as, are we discussing, are you suggesting that you can maybe train the body to create those cells or would you actually supplement the body’s creation of those cells with an injection or some type of medicine?
Betul Hatipoglu, MD, University Hospitals
Yes, that’s what I mean with injection or some type of medicine. Now currently, we do have this amazing opportunity for our patients to receive those cells from a deceased donor and that is a cure. Currently though, this cure requires the patients to take immunosuppressive drugs.
That’s why it’s not amenable to give it, to offer it to everybody. I would love to offer something like this to anyone who is just diagnosed with type 1. We cannot do that yet because they have to take immunosuppressive drugs to keep those cells healthy and happy, which is still a great option when you need it.
But if we are looking at the future, the future has to include something that you can offer to anybody and if possible, without those immunosuppressive drugs and I’m hoping we are gonna come to that point in the next decade or so.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Well, I mean, we made so much progress, doctor. Wouldn’t you agree? And I know you’re the scientist, scientists about refining, it’s iterative, but it sounds like we’ve made great progress since my era, the 1970s, 1980s.
We could potentially eliminate this disease. That’s possibly 2.5 million people in the future that wouldn’t have this. It would extend lifespans.
There’s a lot of opportunity there for improved health and longevity. Sorry, go ahead, doctor.
Betul Hatipoglu, MD, University Hospitals
No, it is so true and it’s so important to remember, remind ourselves what we had 20 years ago and what we have today. It’s amazing. What do we have?
The technology. The technology we have today is incredible. We couldn’t even dream of it that helps many of these patients to at least have safe lives, safety in their lives and a protection from complications of this disease.
But we also today have ways to replace the cells that they are missing, even if it is combined with immunosuppressive drugs, at least to individuals who cannot be managed with this technology. So that’s the second part. But the third thing that we have today, which is also fascinating, for type 1, we can prevent type 1 for two to three years today with a new drug that was approved in 2023.
So we came really far along when it comes to managing, when it comes to insulin types, when it comes to technology, when it comes to cell therapy and prevention. I think if anyone is losing hope and thinks that there isn’t enough, that they didn’t necessarily see what they dreamed of, they have to just pull back a little bit and look at the bigger picture a little bit. And we have come so far away.
We are doing so much better. And I know this will continue. The momentum is not to stop.
The momentum is push forward, move, go ahead and innovate more and cure for everyone that suffers with this illness.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Well, doctor, I for one am motivated and I’m not even a scientist, but look, we appreciate you coming on the program. Great work. Thanks for joining us.
And we look forward to having you back in the program as you continue to make more breakthroughs.
Betul Hatipoglu, MD, University Hospitals
Thank you.