JDRF - Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation

Have you ever been on a rollercoaster?  Other rides make pretty sounds and have pretty colors, but that doesn’t compare to the exhilaration of travelling upside down or doing loop the loop at 100 kilometres an hour. I love the anticipation of the slow climb up, up, up, then the wild feeling of being out of control until the next climb. It can take your breath away.

My name is Mel.  I have two beautiful children and a loving husband.  We live in an average house in an average street.  I have a job but the career that I find the most challenging is motherhood. My children make me laugh in uncontrollable raptures, cry happy tears, worry more than I ever thought I could. Like most mothers, when my children are in pain I wish that I could bear it myself.

Read more...

Research released by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare indicate that an average of 2100 Australians are diagnosed with type 1 diabetes each year, a large proportion of which are children aged between 0-14 years.

Australia has one of the highest incidences of type 1 diabetes in the world for reasons that are currently unknown – but with 9 in 10 people with type 1 having no apparent family connection to the disease, scientists strongly believe in the involvement of an unidentified environmental trigger.

According to JDRF Head of Research Development, Dr Dorota Pawlak, a number of suspects have been scrutinised including early exposure to cows milk, gut bacteria, viral infection and vitamin D levels.

Read more...

JDRF-funded researchers find that some people with type 1 diabetes have an abnormal immune response to wheat proteins.

Type 1 diabetes often co-occurs with coeliac disease, an autoimmune condition caused by a over-reaction of the gut to wheat products. Previous research has shown that these conditions exhibit similar immune reactions and share a number of genetic origins.

Read more...