Dr. William Polonsky: It's very clear. The conclusion they say is simply this: The results suggest that after 30 years of improvements in medical care, type 1 diabetes is no longer a factor in shortened life expectancy. I'm still not convinced that's really true. That's amazing! And obviously, even if that's not true now, we're getting there. That's really amazing. Not type 1 anymore. Type 1 doesn't necessarily limit your life. To be fair, uncontrolled diabetes may contribute to that, but type 1 itself doesn't.
And again, there is now great evidence that with enough care and effort, you can live a long, healthy life with diabetes. So I wanted to feature this great article about what this means and how it's happening around the world. Susan, I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Scott, this is important to you. I know 65 isn't that close, but you'll be there soon. You'll live a long, healthy life, so you'd better start saving money. What do you guys think?
Scott K. Johnson: Susan, let me go first and say, yeah, this is big.
Dr. Susan Guzman: When I see this, it brings up a lot of emotions. First of all, it's very exciting. And then I also feel like there's an image problem with diabetes. We don't seem to like these big headlines very much. Even this very exciting conclusion has been turned into a negative one, into a burden.
Well, I know what it feels like to be living with diabetes. Scott, I want to hear your thoughts. We've bombarded people with scary statistics for so long. Bill and I do. Scott, I'm sure you know people who say, “I thought I was going to die by 30.” I can imagine showing this to people I work with and getting emotional when they hear that type 1 diabetes may not cause people to age and shorten their lifespan. I wish we could talk about the good news in an empowering, engaging and respectful way, rather than just telling them the good news with the title The Burden of Type 1 Diabetes.
Dr. William Polonsky: Well, I respect the authors' opinion. If you look at their conclusions, they're not negative. And if the problem continues, it will put an increased strain on the health care system. That's probably true because people will need ongoing care.
But in fairness to the authors, this is a very positive conclusion, and I was very happy to see it.
Dr. Susan Guzman: Yes, that's right.
Dr. William Polonsky: Scott, what about you?
Scott K. Johnson: I mean, I see this and it gives me so much hope. You're right, Susan. We've been bombarded with scare tactics for much of our lives, especially the early decades, decades ago, and frankly, they didn't work very well. In my case, it caused me to kind of disconnect, to disengage, and kind of shut down.
But it's amazing how little hope makes me more resilient and motivated to continue to strive to be healthy with diabetes and push through the tough days, which are inevitable with diabetes, no matter what the treatment.
But this ray of hope can be extremely helpful on the journey.
Dr. William Polonsky: I hope this is more than just a sign. This is a big thing. Again, this isn't just happening here, this is happening all over the world. And one thing I didn't mention about this study, which goes into great detail, is that it also talks about another metric called disability-adjusted life years, which has also been seen in the global population and has declined over the last 30 years.
Disability-adjusted life years is a way of saying that people with type 1 diabetes are not only more likely to live longer, but also more likely to live longer, healthier lives. In other words, the number of years they live on dialysis, with loss of vision, with severe disability, is starting to decline in large population studies.
But this is just an average. It doesn't apply to everyone. It doesn't mean that bad things aren't still happening. But it does mean that things are really moving in a positive direction. And what they couldn't get from the data is what other data tells us. So, for all of you with type 1 diabetes watching this right now, you know, by taking action on your diabetes care, you can be one of these people.
When Scott turns 90, we can spend time with him and his great-grandchildren, wondering where we're going to hike next. Well, we expect to hear a lot more good news. These data will continue for many years to come, and we want to do our best to make that possible and make it even more likely for people.
Scott K. Johnson: This is a really good example of evidence-based hope. This is really important to me and I know it's really important to you. Is there anything else you'd like to add, or can I just end this on this positive note?
Dr. William Polonsky: No need to go on and on about this, just a quick summary of what I want people to know, and I think that's it, Scott.
Scott K. Johnson: Yes, it's great. Thanks to everyone who watched and of course, as always, to both of you for bringing this hopeful news to light. It's so refreshing to hear such positive news and I hope you continue to have many more days of good health with diabetes.
So thank you very much and I'll see you next time.